The velvet-browed brilliant (''Heliodoxa xanthogonys'') 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 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

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 ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, 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 27 May 2021Remsen, 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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved February 1, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The velvet-browed brilliant has two subspecies, the nominate ''H. x. xanthogonys'' and ''H. x. williardi''.

Description

MonographTrochiSupplementGoul 0080 (cropped)

The velvet-browed brilliant is long including its approximately bill, and weighs . Both sexes have a straight bill; the

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

is blackish and the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

orange with a dark tip. Both have a small white spot behind the eye.Weller, A.A., P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Velvet-browed Brilliant (''Heliodoxa xanthogonys''), 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.vebbri1.01 retrieved 6 May 2022 Males of the nominate subspecies have a glittering golden- to emerald green central crown and a velvety blackish

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

. The rest of the face, the hindneck, and the upperparts are dark golden green. The upper throat has a glittering violet-blue patch, the breast and belly are dark golden green, and 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 sm ...

are greenish with narrow gray and rufous edges. The uppertail coverts and central tail feathers are bronze- to emerald green and the rest of the tail blackish green. Females are generally duller, with less iridescence, and do not have the black supercilium or the violet throat patch. They have a white "moustache", and most of the underparts are whitish with greenish spots. The tail feathers have white tips. Males of subspecies ''H. x. williardi'' have longer wings and tail than the nominate but are otherwise similar. Females have less green and more white on their underparts, with no green spots on the belly. The tail is emerald green with broad white edges to the feathers.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of velvet-browed brilliant is found in the highlands and

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran S ...

s where Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil meet. In addition, there are a few records in Suriname. Subspecies ''H. x. williardi'' is found further south, on the tepuis of the southern Venezuela-northern Brazil border. The species inhabits the interior, edges, and clearings of sub-montane forest and also scrublands. In elevation is mostly occurs between but has been recorded as low as .

Behavior

Movement

The velvet-browed brilliant is believed to be sedentary but may make some seasonal elevational movements.

Feeding

The velvet-browed brilliant forages for nectar both low down and high in the canopy, but in the forest interior tends to stay low. It feeds 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, but also defends patches of flowers. In some seasons the sexes tend to separate and feed at different resources. In addition to nectar, the species also feeds on small insects.

Breeding

The velvet-browed brilliant's breeding season is apparently from January to March. It makes a saddle-type nest but nothing else is known about its breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

Vocalization

The velvet-browed brilliant gives a "repeated nasal 'squank'" in flight. Another vocalization is "high-pitched drawn-out reeling trills" that rise and fall in pitch.

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 velvet-browed brilliant as being of Least Concern. However, it has a restricted range and its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. It is locally abundant, and might be present in unexplored suitable habitat in the gaps among its scattered known locations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1187277 velvet-browed brilliant Birds of Venezuela velvet-browed brilliant velvet-browed brilliant velvet-browed brilliant Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Birds of the Tepuis