The stripe-breasted starthroat (''Heliomaster squamosus'') 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 "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 Trochilini (e ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

.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 stripe-breasted starthroat was placed in genus ''Lepidolarynx'' 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 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 stripe-breasted starthroat is long and weighs . Both sexes have a long, slightly decurved, black bill, a white streak behind the eye, and a white "moustache". Both have a forked tail but the female's is less deeply indented than the male's. Males in breeding plumage have bronzy green upperparts with an iridescent green crown. Their

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 thro ...

is glittering violet and the sides of it flare out. Their underparts are greenish black with a white stripe down the middle. The central tail feathers are black and the rest dark blue-green. After breeding its throat molts to grayish with black spots. Females' upperparts are like the male's. The throat feathers are blackish green with white edges. The chest and belly are grayish with a white stripe down the middle and the flanks are greenish. The tail is green and the outer feathers have a steel blue band near the end and white tips.Schuchmann, K.L., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Stripe-breasted Starthroat (''Heliomaster squamosus''), 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.stbsta1.01 retrieved 14 May 2022

Distribution and habitat

The stripe-breasted starthroat is found in eastern Brazil from

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

south to

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

state. It has also been recorded as a vagrant in Argentina's

Iguazú National Park The Iguazú National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Iguazú) is a national park of Argentina, located in the Iguazú Department, in the north of the province of Misiones, Argentine Mesopotamia. It has an area of . History The area of the park w ...

. It inhabits forest and savannah at elevations from sea level to .

Behavior

Movment

The stripe-breasted starthroat is essentiall sedentary but may occasionally wander to higher elevations than usual.

Feeding

The stripe-breasted starthroat feeds on nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants. It typically forages between above the ground. It is territorial, but defends flower patches from others of its species more than from other hummingbirds. In addition to nectar, it also feeds on small insects captured 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 ...

Breeding

The stripe-breasted starthroat's breeding season is usually February to April but it has been recorded incubating in November. It makes a small cup nest and usually sites it on a horizontal tree branch above the ground. Some nests have been seen higher, and at least one has been seen on a utility wire. The female incubates the clutch of two eggs for 14 to 16 days and fledging occurs 21 to 24 days after hatch.

Vocalization

What is thought to be the stripe-breasted starthroat's song is "a subdued, buzzy scratchy warble 'bzzzrrrr..bzzzrrr..chi-chi-chi-chi..bzrrr'." It also makes "a liquid 'tsik'" call.

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 ...

originally assessed the stripe-breasted starthroat as Near Threatened but since 2004 has rated it as being of Least Concern. Though its population size is unknown, it is believed to be stable. It is considered to be locally common and occurs in at least one Brazilian national park.

References

External links

Stripe-breasted starthroat photo
So. Amer. Birds {{Taxonbar, from=Q839013 stripe-breasted starthroat Birds of Brazil Endemic birds of Brazil Hummingbird species of South America stripe-breasted starthroat Taxonomy articles created by Polbot