The orange-throated sunangel (''Heliangelus mavors'') 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 "coquettes", tribe

Lesbiini Lesbiini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae in the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe is Heliantheini (brilliants). The informal name "coquettes" has been proposed for this group as the largest genus, ''L ...

of subfamily

Lesbiinae Lesbiinae is one of the six subfamily, subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into two Tribe (biology), tribes: Heliantheini ("brilliants") containing 14 genera and Lesbiini ("coqu ...

. It is found in

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 ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

.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 May 27, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The orange-throated sunangel 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 "unispec ...

Description

The orange-throated sunangel is long and weighs . It has a straight blackish bill. Adult males have a shining green crown and back. A small area above the bill and the throat and upper breast are glittering coppery orange. A broad cinnamon-buff band separates the upper breast from the buff lower breast that is spotted golden green. The central tail feathers are golden green and the outer ones dark bronze with pale tips. Adult females are similar but their throat and upper breast are reddish brown with buff speckles. Immatures are similar to the adult female but young males have a dusky brown throat.Heynen, I. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Orange-throated Sunangel (''Heliangelus mavors''), 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.ortsun1.01 retrieved January 19, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The orange-throated sunangel is found from Venezuela's

Lara Lara may refer to: Places * Lara (state), a state in Venezuela *Electoral district of Lara, an electoral district in Victoria, Australia * Lara, Antalya, an urban district in Turkey * Lara, Victoria, a township in Australia * Lara de los Infa ...

state southwest into Colombia as far as

Boyacá Department Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia". Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the moun ...

. It inhabits open landscapes such as the edges of 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 c ...

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 humi ...

, pastures, and ''

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

''. It is also found in dryer habitats. In elevation it ranges from .

Behavior

Movement

The orange-throated sunangel is mainly sedentary but it descends to the lower part of its elevational range after breeding.

Feeding

The orange-throated sunangel defends flower clusters from which it takes nectar, often clinging to the flower while feeding. It usually forages at low level and near cover. 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.

Breeding

The orange-throated sunangel's breeding season spans from December to March. Its nest has not been described. The clutch of two eggs is incubated by the female, who first breeds in her second year. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.

Vocalization

The orange-throated sunangel's call is "a repeated, high-pitched, cricket-like, faint trill" that is given both in flight and from a perch.

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 orange-throated sunangel as being of Least Concern. Though its population size is not known, it is believed to be stable. It is locally common in Venezuela but uncommon to rare in Colombia.

References

External links

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sunbirdtours
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borderland-tours {{Taxonbar, from=Q1074116 orange-throated sunangel Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Venezuelan Andes orange-throated sunangel Taxonomy articles created by Polbot