The purple-bibbed whitetip (''Urosticte benjamini'') 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 "brilliants", tribe

Heliantheini Heliantheini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae of the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe in the subfamily is Lesbiini. The informal name "brilliants" has been proposed for this group as it includes the ge ...

in subfamily Lesbiinae. 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

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

.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

The purple-bibbed whitetip and

rufous-vented whitetip The rufous-vented whitetip (''Urosticte ruficrissa'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the ...

(''Urosticte ruficrissa'') have been treated as conspecific and as distinct species, each by multiple authors. Since the early 2000s there is consensus that they are species in their own right. They are the only members of their genus and both are

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 ...

.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, 2022Clements, 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

Description

The purple-bibbed whitetip is long and weighs . Both sexes have a medium-length straight black bill and a prominent white stripe behind the eye. Both have glittering green upperparts. Males have a violet lower throat white below it and a grayish belly with green spots. The tail is dusky bronze; the central feathers have wide white tips that appear as an oval spot. Females have white underparts heavily spotted with green. The tail is dusky bronze with purple near the end and white tips on the outer feathers. Juveniles are similar to females with the addition of brown edges on the head feathers.Schuchmann, K.L., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Purple-bibbed Whitetip (''Urosticte benjamini''), 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.pubwhi1.01 retrieved 6 May 2022

Distribution and habitat

The purple-bibbed whitetip is found on the Pacific slope of the Andes from Colombia's Chocó Department south into Ecuador as far as Pichincha Province. It inhabits the interior and edges of

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

, generally at elevations between . In Ecuador it is most numerous between .

Behavior

Movement

The purple-bibbed whitetip is sedentary in Colombia but in Ecuador moves to lower elevations after breeding.

Feeding

The purple-bibbed whitetip mostly forages in the forest interior, from near the ground to below the canopy. It collects nectar from a variety of flowering plants including

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 and members of families Ericaceae,

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

, and Rubiaceae. In addition to feeding on nectar it captures insects by gleaning from vegetation and

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 purple-bibbed whitetip's breeding season in Ecuador spans from January to April; it has not been defined in Colombia. It builds a cup nest from moss and ferns, and typically places it in a shrub or vines in a steep ravine about above the ground. The female incubates the clutch of two eggs for 16 to 18 days; the time to fledging is not known.

Vocalization

The purple-bibbed whitetip makes a "mellow, nasal-sounding fast twittering 'tweetweetweetwee...'" that can sound like "a laughing chatter". While feeding in flight it also makes "single lower-pitched scratchy notes, 'chrrrrr'". Another call is a "very high-pitched 'pseee'."

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 purple-bibbed whitetip as being of Least Concern, though its population size is not known and believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. Though it has a restricted range, it is considered common, and occurs in some protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q277660

purple-bibbed whitetip The purple-bibbed whitetip (''Urosticte benjamini'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds o ...

Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes