The many-spotted hummingbird (''Taphrospilus hypostictus'') is a species of

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 ...

in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022 It is found in

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Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, Ecuador, Peru, and possibly Argentina.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 24 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 24, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The many-spotted hummingbird is the only member of genus ''Taphrospilus'' and has no subspecies. However, some authors have placed it in genus ''Talaphorus'' which others merged into ''Leucippus''. Many-spotted Hummingbird JCB

Description

The many-spotted hummingbird is long and weighs . Both sexes have a slightly decurved black bill about long, and their plumage is very similar. Adults' upperparts are grass green to coppery bronze and the underparts white. The underparts except the central belly are thickly spotted with green, the female's somewhat less heavily. Their tail is blue-green with dusky gray tips to the feathers. Juveniles are the same with the addition of buffy fringes on the head feathers.Schuchmann, K.L. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Many-spotted Hummingbird (''Taphrospilus hypostictus''), 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.mashum1.01 retrieved September 4, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The many-spotted hummingbird's primary range is the eastern slope of the Andes from Ecuador's Napo Province through eastern Peru into central Bolivia. It has also been documented in southern Colombia. The International Ornithological Committee places it Brazil and 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 ...

in Argentina. However, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has no records from Brazil; undocumented sight records from Argentina lead the committee to list it as hypothetical in that country. The many-spotted hummingbird inhabits the interior and edges of humid foothill and subtropical forest, favoring small ravines. In elevation it mostly ranges between but has been found as high as in Peru. It is most numerous around .

Behavior

Movement

The many-spotted hummingbird is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The many-spotted hummingbird forages for nectar at a variety of flowering trees, shrubs, vines, and terrestrial

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

s. It usually does so alone, but at feeders will associate with other hummingbirds. In addition to nectar it feeds on small insects captured by

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from a perch.

Breeding

The many-spotted hummingbird's breeding season appears to span from January to May. It makes a bulky cup nest of fine rootlets and moss and usually attaches it to a tree trunk within about of the ground. The female incubates the clutch of two eggs for 14 to 15 days and fledging occurs 20 to 22 days after hatch.

Vocalization

The many-spotted hummingbird's song is a "quiet series of wheezy, electric warbles and gravelly-sounding chatters". It also makes calls described as "a thin-sounding 'chit' and a wheezy 'dew dew dew'."

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 the many-spotted hummingbird as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, but its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered generally common, though in Ecuador only "scarce to locally common".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1190011 many-spotted hummingbird Birds of the Northern Andes Hummingbird species of South America many-spotted hummingbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot