Gould's inca (''Coeligena inca'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Lesbiinae, the so-called "typical hummingbirds", of

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Trochilidae. It is found in Bolivia and Peru.

Taxonomy and systematics

The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC), the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

, and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' (HBW) recognize Gould's inca as a species.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022 The South American Classification Committee 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 ...

treats it as a subspecies of the

collared inca The collared inca (''Coeligena torquata'') is a species of hummingbird found in humid Andean forests from western Venezuela through Colombia and Ecuador to Peru. It is very distinctive in having a white chest-patch and white on the tail. Like ot ...

(''C. torquata'') but is seeking a proposal to recognize it as a species.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023 According to the IOC, Clements, and HBW, Gould's inca has two subspecies, the nominate ''C. t. inca'' (Gould, 1852) and ''C. t. omissa'' (Zimmer, J.T., 1948).

Description

Gould's inca is about long and weighs . Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a mostly velvety black head with a green forehead and a small white spot behind the eye. The rest of their upperparts are golden green that is shinier on the lower back. Their central pair of tail feathers is bronze-green and the rest are white with bronze-green tips. Their throat is black, their upper breast collar orange, their belly glittering green, and their 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 sm ...

golden-green with white fringes. Nominate adult females have a lighter black head than males, and with golden-green spots. The rest of their upperparts are shining golden green. Their collar is rufous, usually with some green spots on the side, their breast glittering green, and their lower belly green with a rufous wash and large golden green spots. Juveniles resemble adult females. Subspecies ''C. t. omissa'' is similar to the nominate but has a bluish forehead, a greener throat, and mostly dark green rather than golden green upper- and underparts.del Hoyo, J., T. Züchner, N. Collar, E. de Juana, P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2022). Gould's Inca (''Coeligena inca''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (B. K. Keeney, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.colinc3.01 retrieved February 1, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of Gould's inca is found in the Andes of Bolivia in the departments of

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

and Cochabamba. Subspecies ''C. t. omissa'' is found in the Peruvian Andes between Cuzco and

Puno Puno (Aymara and qu, Punu) is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 140,839 (2015 estimate). The city was establish ...

departments. The species inhabits the understory and lower canopy of wet

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movment

As far as is known, Gould's inca is a year-round resident throughout its range, but it might make short-distance seasonal movements.

Feeding

Gould's inca forages by

trap-lining In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually seen in species ...

, visiting a circuit of flowering plants. It feeds on nectar from a variety of plants, mostly those with long tubular flowers. It also catches insects by

hawking Hawking may refer to: People * Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist *Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name) Film * ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Haw ...

from a perch or by gleaning while hovering.

Breeding

Gould's inca makes a cup nest of moss lined with fern scales. Most of those known were placed on a stick or root projecting from a rocky cliff beneath a mossy overhang. The clutch size is one or two eggs. The incubation period is not known; the time to fledging is about 23 days. The female alone incubates the clutch and cares for nestlings.

Vocalization

The vocalization's of Gould's inca have not been described.

Xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and Information repository, repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of Bird vocalization, birdsong and bird calls. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound r ...

includes recordings within those of the collared inca. As of early 2023 Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library had one recording.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed Gould's inca as being of Least Concern. It has a restricted range and its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. " nce its habitat, humid montane cloudforest, is under heavy threat of destruction, hespecies could suffer in the near future."

References

External links

Collared inca (including Gould's inca) photo gallery
VIREO