The Talamanca hummingbird or admirable hummingbird (''Eugenes spectabilis'') 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 ...

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 Trochili ...

. It is found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

.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

What is now the Talamanca hummingbird ''Eugenes spectabilis'' was originally described as a subspecies of the magnificent hummingbird (''E. fulgens''). Beginning in 2017 the North American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

(NACC), the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC), 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 ...

split the magnificent hummingbird into the Talamanca hummingbird and

Rivoli's hummingbird Rivoli's hummingbird (''Eugenes fulgens''), also known as the magnificent hummingbird, is a species of hummingbird in the "mountain gems", tribe Lampornithini in subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nica ...

. The latter retained the binomial ''E. fulgens'' because of the

principle of priority 270px, '' valid name. Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two asp ...

. However, as of 2020,

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

(HBW) retains the single species "magnificent" hummingbird treatment with two subspecies.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021 The Talamanca hummingbird 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 Talamanca hummingbird is about long. Males weigh about and females . Both sexes have a long straight black bill and a small white spot behind the eye.Partida-Lara, R. and P. L. Enríquez (2020). Talamanca Hummingbird (''Eugenes spectabilis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.maghum2.01 retrieved 13 May 2022 Adult males have a dull black forehead with a dark green gloss, a metallic violet blue to purple crown, and a dull black nape and upper back. Much of the rest of the face is dark green, and the lores are a deep black. The rest of the upperparts and the tail are bronzy green to golden green; the tail feathers sometimes have grayish tips. The chin and

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 ...

are metallic bluish green. The breast and belly are dark bronzy green, on the belly mixed with brownish gray. 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 dull bronzy green with pale buff edges. Adult females do not have the iridescent crown and gorget of the male. Their upperparts are dull dark green and most of the face is sooty black. The two innermost pairs of tail feathers are also dull dark green and the three outer pairs bronzy green with a black band near the end and brownish gray tips. The throat is brownish gray with buff tips to the feathers, the flanks dark green, and the breast, belly, and undertail coverts dull brownish gray with a dull green wash. Immature birds are similar to the adult female, but have darker brown underparts with a dull buff scaly appearance. The upperparts' feathers, especially those of the crown and neck, have buffy fringes.

Distribution and habitat

The Talamanca hummingbird is found in mountains from central Costa Rica into western Panama. In Costa Rica it occurs in the Cordillera Central and

Cordillera de Talamanca The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two ...

and in Panama only in the

Volcán Barú The Volcán Barú (also Volcán de Chiriquí) is an active stratovolcano and the tallest mountain in Panama, at high. It lies about off the border of Costa Rica. It is also the twelfth highest peak in Central America. Due to its height and the ...

massif of

Chiriquí Province Chiriquí () is a province of Panama located on the western coast; it is the second most developed province in the country, after the Panamá Province. Its capital is the city of David. It has a total area of 6,490.9 km², with a population ...

. It inhabits oak forests and is partial to the forest's edges and clearings, and also is found in nearby

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

. In Costa Rica it occurs from up to treeline but is most common above and is occasionally found as low as . In Panama it occurs between .

Behavior

Movement

The Talamanca hummingbird is generally sedentary, but some individuals move to lower elevations in what might be a regular migration.

Feeding

Talamanca hummingbirds feed on nectar from a variety of flowering plants, though the full list of sources has not been defined. Males defend flower patches in the lower storeys of the forest and sometimes also feed in the canopy. Females forage 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. The species probably also feeds on small

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s though details are lacking; the closely related Rivoli's hummingbird captures them in mid-air or by gleaning from vegetation while hovering.

Breeding

The Talamanca hummingbird's breeding season in Costa Rica spans from November to March; it has not been defined in Panama. It builds a cup nest of plant down and other fine fibers and covers the outside with moss and lichens. The nest is typically placed at the tip of a dangling bamboo stem between above the ground. The incubation period is not known; the time from hatch to fledging is at least 25 days.

Vocalization

The Talamanca hummingbird's song is "a soft, low-pitched song of burbling, scratchy, buzzy notes." It makes "a rapid stream of high, clear, liquid chips" during aggressive encounters. Another call is "a rather guttural, rolling ''nrrt'' or ''drrk''."

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 ...

follows HBW taxonomy and so treats Rivoli's and Talamanca hummingbirds as a single species assessed as being of Least Concern. As a whole it has a large range and an apparently stable population, though the population size is not known. The Talamanca hummingbird is considered fairly common throughout its range. However, it "is vulnerable to habitat loss and degradation, although ample forest remains in the Cordillera de Talamanca."

Gallery

Talamanca hummingbird (Eugenes spectabilis) male 3.jpg, Male Talamanca hummingbird (Eugenes spectabilis) male 1.jpg, Male Talamanca hummingbird (Eugenes spectabilis) male 2.jpg, Same male
showing its bright colors Talamanca hummingbird (Eugenes spectabilis) male in flight.jpg, Male in flight

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q21197421

Talamanca hummingbird The Talamanca hummingbird or admirable hummingbird (''Eugenes spectabilis'') is a species of hummingbird in the "mountain gems", tribe Lampornithini in subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama.HBW and BirdLife International (2 ...

Birds of the Talamancan montane forests

Hummingbird species of Central America