The long-billed starthroat (''Heliomaster longirostris'') 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 ...

of hummingbird in the "mountain gems", tribe

Lampornithini Lampornithini is one of the three tribes that make up the subfamily Trochilinae in the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other two tribes in the subfamily are Mellisugini (bees) and Trochilini (emeralds). The informal name "mountain gems" has ...

in subfamily

Trochilinae Trochilinae is one of the six subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into three tribes: Lampornithini (mountain gems) containing 18 species, Mellisugini (bees) containing 37 species and Trochili ...

. It is found in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

, and all but the four southernmost countries of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

.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

At one time the long-billed starthroat was placed in genus ''Anthoscenus'' but since the mid-1900s has had its current placement in ''Heliomaster''.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 31 January 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved February 1, 2022 It has three subspecies, the nominate ''H. l. longirostris'', ''H. l. pallidicepts'', and ''H. l. albicrissa''.

Description

The long-billed starthroat is long. Males weigh and females about . Both sexes of all subspecies have a long, almost straight, black bill and a small white spot behind the eye.Stiles, F.G. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Long-billed Starthroat (''Heliomaster longirostris''), 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.lobsta1.01 retrieved 13 May 2022 Males of the nominate subspecies have a glittering blue to greenish blue crown; the rest of its upperparts are dark bronzy green with the exception of a white stripe down the center of the rump. The face is black below the crown and has a white malar stripe below the black. Its tail is rather short and square-tipped. The feathers are bronzy green near the body and black away from it, and the outer two or three pairs have white tips. The chin is black, the

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 ...

dark metallic purple, the breast gray with bronzy green sides, and the lower breast and belly dull white. 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 gray with white edges. Nominate females are very similar but the blue of the crown is much reduced or absent and the gorget is narrower and dusky gray. Subspecies ''H. l. pallidicepts'' has a more greenish blue crown than the nominate and the sides of the breast are golden bronze. ''H. l. albicrissa'' is identical to the nominate except that its undertail coverts are mostly to entirely white.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''H. l. pallidicepts'' of long-billed starthroat is the northernmost; it is found from southern Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador into Nicaragua. The nominate ''H. l. longirostris'' is the most widespread. It is found from Costa Rica through Panama, into South America as far south as eastern Peru and eastern Bolivia and east through

the Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

well into Brazil, and on Trinidad. ''H. l. albicrissa'' has a restricted range in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. The species inhabits a variety of humid semi-open landscapes including the edges of woodland, isolated woodlands, pastures with trees,

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

, and secondary forest. It shuns the interior of closed forest. It is a bird of the lowlands and foothills that ranges in elevation from sea level to about .

Behavior

Movement

The long-billed starthroat has erratic and poorly understood movements. It seems to move in response to the flowering of different plant communities.

Feeding

The long-billed starthroat feeds on nectar, especially at the flowers of large trees but also those of vines, shrubs, and ''Heliconia''. It forages both 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) and by defending flower-laden trees. It also feeds on small insects, often capturing them on the wing high in the air and sometimes by gleaning from vegetation.

Breeding

The long-billed starthroat breeds from the late wet season into the early dry season in the northern parts of its range. The span in Mexico and Central America is from October/November to February/March. Two broods per season have been observed in Central America. In northern Colombia it nests at least in September/October and March. The timing of breeding is not known in the rest of the species' range. The nest is a shallow cup made of plant down, moss, and liveworts cemented with spider silk and covered with lichen. It is typically placed between above the ground in a shrub, on an exposed branch, and even on a telephone wire. The female incubates the two white eggs for 18 to 19 days; fledging occurs 25 to 26 days after hatch.

Vocalization

The long-billed starthroat's calls include "a rich liquid 'tseep' or 'tsew'" and "sqeaky twitters"; the latter is made during chases.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the long-billed starthroat as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range and a population of at least 500,000 mature individuals. The population, however, is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon in most of its range but occurs in several protected areas. It is "evidently able to tolerate much disturbance, and perhaps even favoured by deforestation, as long as scattered trees and groves remain."

Gallery

File:Long-billed startthroat (Heliomaster longirostris longirostris).jpg, Male, Panama File:Long-billed Starthroat.jpg, Female - Morti, Panama File:Heliomaster longirostris (Picudo coronado) (15617223925).jpg, Male

References

External links

Stamps
for Guyana, (with RangeMap)
Long-billed starthroat photo gallery
VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q1268074 Heliomaster Hummingbird species of South America Birds of the Guianas Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of Brazil Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Hummingbird species of Central America Birds of Mexico Birds described in 1801 Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Audebert Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot