The wedge-tailed hillstar (''Oreotrochilus adela'') 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

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

.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 wedge-tailed hillstar 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 wedge-tailed hillstar is long and weighs . Adults have a medium length slightly decurved black bill. Both sexes' upperparts are gray-brown with a bronzy cast. The adult male has a glittering green

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 ...

and chestnut underparts with a bold black stripe down the center. The tail is graduated and mostly blue-black; all but the central feathers have cinnamon inner webs. The adult female's throat is white with grayish and green spots and the rest of the underparts are pale rufous. The tail is blue-black and the outer three or four pairs of feathers are white at their tips. Juveniles are similar to the adult female.Fjeldså, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Wedge-tailed Hillstar (''Oreotrochilus adela''), 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.wethil1.01 retrieved February 22, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The wedge-tailed hillstar is found from southern La Paz Department in central Bolivia south barely into

Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south. Geography There are three main areas in Jujuy: * ...

in extreme northwestern Argentina. It inhabits semi-arid to seasonally humid areas of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

below the '' puna'' grasslands. It typically is found among

mesophytic Mesophytes are terrestrial plants which are neither adapted to particularly dry nor particularly wet environments. An example of a mesophytic habitat would be a rural temperate meadow, which might contain Solidago, goldenrod, Trifolium, clover, Leuc ...

shrubs and also often occurs in gullies or basins with stands of ''

Polylepis ''Polylepis'' is a genus comprising 28 recognised shrub and tree species, that are endemic to the mid- and high-elevation regions of the tropical Andes. This group is unique in the rose family in that it is predominantly wind-pollinated. They are ...

'' trees. It will inhabit degraded habitat as long as ''

Dodonaea ''Dodonaea'' is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants, often known as hop-bushes, in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, so ...

'' bushes, taller bushes, and columnar cacti remain. In elevation it ranges from .

Behavior

Movement

The wedge-tailed hillstar's movements are not well known, but local movements and dispersal are suspected.

Feeding

The wedge-tailed hillstar feeds on nectar from flowering plants; examples include those of genera ''

Barnadesia ''Barnadesia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. It is native to South America, where it is distributed from Colombia to northern Argentina, with most species occurring in the Andes.Mutisia ''Mutisia'' is a genus of flowering plant in the tribe Mutisieae within the family Asteraceae. ''Mutisia'' has been named after José Celestino Mutis. It comprises about sixty species which can be found along the entire length of the Andes and i ...

'', and ''

Puya Puya may refer to: * ''Puya'' (plant), in the family Bromeliaceae * Puya (river), in Russia * Puya, a variety of Guajillo chili * ''Puya'' (Meitei texts), traditional or mythological texts of the Meetei people * ''Culoepuya'' or ''Culo'e Puya'', V ...

''; various mistletoes; and columnar cacti. It also feeds on insects.

Breeding

The wedge-tailed hillstar's breeding season is not well defined but appears to span from October to perhaps February. Males court by alternately singing and displaying from an open perch and making a deep "U" shaped flight. The nest is a large cup glued to a rock face. Nothing else is known about the species' 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 male wedge-tailed hillstar's display song is "a medley of intense twittering notes interspersed by a distinct descending cadence".

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 wedge-tailed hillstar as Near Threatened but in 2021 reclassified it as being of Least Concern. Its population is estimated at between 2500 and 10,000 mature individuals and is believed to be decreasing. It is generally uncommon but apparently can continue in degraded areas if brushy ravines remain. The human population is dense in its range and there are no protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1273505

wedge-tailed hillstar The wedge-tailed hillstar (''Oreotrochilus adela'') is a species of hummingbird in the "coquettes", tribe Lesbiini of subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Argentina and Bolivia.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the ...

Birds of the Bolivian Andes

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot