The gorgeted puffleg (''Eriocnemis isabellae'') is a Critically Endangered species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe

Heliantheini Heliantheini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae of the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe in the subfamily is Lesbiini. The informal name "brilliants" has been proposed for this group as it includes the ge ...

in subfamily

Lesbiinae Lesbiinae is one of the six subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into two tribes: Heliantheini ("brilliants") containing 14 genera and Lesbiini ("coquettes") containing 18 genera. Phylogeny A mo ...

. It is endemic to Colombia. It was discovered in 2005 and confirmed as a species new to science in 2007.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The first known example of the gorgeted puffleg was mist-netted in 2005. Subsequent visits to the area provided more captures and allowed comparison of the birds to specimens of other ''Eriocnemis'' pufflegs. The decision that it is a new species was published in 2007. Later that year the South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

accepted it for the South American list, and worldwide taxonomic systems soon followed suit.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021 The authors of the 2007 publication suggested that the new species, the

black-breasted puffleg The black-breasted puffleg (''Eriocnemis nigrivestis'') is a species of hummingbird native to Ecuador. It is Critically Endangered, with no more than 250 individuals remaining in the wild. Description The species reaches a length of 8–9 ...

(''E. nigrivestis''), and the

glowing puffleg The glowing puffleg (''Eriocnemis vestita'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of t ...

(''E. vestita'') form a superspecies. The gorgeted puffleg is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

Description

The gorgeted puffleg is long and weighs about . It has a short, straight, black bill. Unique among pufflegs, the male has a glittering violet-blue

gorget A gorget , from the French ' meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the th ...

edged with green. The male's upperparts are mostly blackish with golden olive green iridescence; the rump has a green gloss. The moderately forked tail is dark steely blue. The breast and belly are velvety black with green gloss on the sides and the undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are s ...

are blue. The leg puffs are white. The eye is dark brown and the legs blackish. The female's upperparts are a lighter bronzy green with a bluish rump and uppertail coverts. The belly is golden green with rufous fringes to the feathers and a turquoise gloss.Fjeldså, J. and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Gorgeted Puffleg (''Eriocnemis isabellae''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gorpuf1.01 retrieved March 12, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The gorgeted puffleg is known only from the

Serranía del Pinche The Serranía del Pinche are part of the Western Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The mountains consist of several high peaks with small patches of isolated páramo and provide a corridor between the Pacific and Andean biogeographic regions. It is ...

in the Western Andes of Colombia's Department of Cauca. The habitat is characterized by steep slopes of very humid

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...

and

elfin forest Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem featuring miniature trees, inhabited by small species of fauna such as rodents and lizards. They are usually located at high elevations, under conditions of sufficient air hu ...

with rocky outcrops and natural clearings. The vegetation is dominated by Andean oak ('' Quercus humboldtii'') with an understory of

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

and several other plant families. In elevation this habitat is found mainly between .

Behavior

Movement

The movement pattern of the gorgeted puffleg is not known, but seasonal shifts in elevation are believed possible.

Feeding

The gorgeted puffleg feeds on nectar from flowering shrubs in dense vegetation. It has been recorded feeding at ''

Bejaria ''Bejaria'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The f ...

resinosa'', ''

Cavendishia ''Cavendishia'' is a genus of about 100 species of woody perennial plants, many of which are epiphytic. The genus is native to tropical South America and Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the ...

bracteata'', '' Cinchona pubescens'', and ''

Faramea ''Faramea'' is a genus of plants in the family Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recogniza ...

flavicans''.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the gorgeted puffleg's breeding phenology.

Vocalization

As of early 2022, no recordings of gorgeted puffleg vocalizations were available at

Xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of birdsong and bird calls. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound recordings from more than 10,000 species w ...

or Cornell University's

Macaulay Library The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal sounds. It includes more than 33 million photographs, 1.2 million audio recordings, and over two hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an eve ...

. Its song is unknown, but a territorial call is described as "a frequently repeated monosyllabic, sharp 'twek'" that is pitched lower than those of others of its genus.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the gorgeted puffleg as Critically Endangered. It has an extremely small overall range with an even smaller amount of suitable habitat within it. Its population is estimated at between 250 and 999 mature individuals and decreasing. Its habitat is under continuing pressure from illegal

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, ...

cultivation, though its home mountain range is nominally protected as the Serranía del Pinche Protective Forest Reserve.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1007804 gorgeted puffleg Birds of the Colombian Andes Endemic birds of Colombia Critically endangered animals Critically endangered biota of South America gorgeted puffleg