Heliodoxa Leadbeateri

The violet-fronted brilliant (''Heliodoxa leadbeateri'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.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 violet-fronted brilliant has four subspecies:

*''H. l. leadbeateri'' Bourcier (1843)
*''H. l. parvula'' Berlepsch (1888)
*''H. l. sagitta'' Reichenbach (1854)
*''H. l. otero'' Tschudi (1844)

Description

The violet-fronted brilliant is long. Males weigh and females . Both sexes have a medium length, almost straight, black bill, a white malar streak, and a small white spot behind the eye. They both have a forked tail but the female's is less deeply indented than the male's.Heynen, I., P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Violet-fronted Brilliant (''Heliodoxa leadbeateri''), 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.vifbri1.01 retrieved 9 May 2022

Males of the nominate subspecies have bronzy green upperparts with a glittering blue forehead and a coppery neck. They have a glittering emerald green gorget and a dull bronzy green breast and belly. The central pair of tail feathers are bronzy green, the next pair steel blue with bronze tips, and the rest dark steel blue. Females have coppery green upperparts with a glittering green forehead. Their underparts are white transitioning to buffy on the belly, and the throat and breast are thickly spotted with glittering green. The tail feathers have white tips.

Males of subspecies ''H. l. parvula'' have a violet forehead and a paler and duller belly than the nominate. Their central tail feathers are lighter and greener than the nominate's and the rest more blackish. The female's belly has a cinnamon buff background. ''H. l. sagitta'' males have a blue forehead, a bluish breast, and the rest of the underparts and the tail like those of ''parvula''. Females have a blue patch on the crown and an almost white belly. Males of ''H. l. otero'' have less coppery upperparts than the nominate; females have a brownish belly and little or no glittering on the forehead.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of violet-fronted brilliant are found thus:

*''H. l. leadbeateri'', the Venezuelan Coastal Range between Falcón and Miranda states
*''H. l. parvula'', the Andes of western Venzulea, Serranía del Perijá on the Venezuela-Colombia border, most of the Eastern Andes of Colombia, and the northern end of the Central Andes.
*''H. l. sagitta'', the eastern slope of the Ecuadorean Andes south into Peru as far as the Department of Pasco
*''H. l. otero'', the eastern slope of the Andes from central Peru into northwestern Bolovia to Cochabamba Department

The species inhabits a variety of landscapes, mainly in the tropical and subtropical zones. It mainly occurs in the interior and edges of pre-montane rainforest and cloudforest, but is also found in scrub, clearings, secondary forest, and coffee plantations. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The violet-fronted brilliant is sedentary.

Feeding

The violet-fronted brilliant forages mostly in the lower to middle strata of the forest, typically below . Unlike some other brilliants, it forages alone and does not share flowering trees with others. In addition to nectar, it also feeds on insects captured by hawking. Insects are a substantial part of its diet though details of the plants that it frequents are lacking.

Breeding

The violet-fronted brilliant's nesting season spans from January to May. No other information about its breeding phenology has been published.

Vocalization

What is thought to be the violet-brilliant's song is "a continuous series of single strident 'chup' or 'tchep' notes". It also makes "a repeated, bright, descending phrase 'whee-tsee-tsee-tsew' that sounds like a jerky twittering."

Status

The IUCN has assessed the violet-fronted brilliant as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, but its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. The species "appears to be quite common, at least locally."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1268606

violet-fronted brilliant
Birds of the Northern Andes
violet-fronted brilliant
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot