The white-whiskered hermit (''Phaethornis yaruqui'') 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 family Trochilidae. 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.

Taxonomy and systematics

The white-whiskered hermit is monotypic. The western Colombia population was at one time considered to be a subspecies ''P. y. sanctijohannis'' but the description was found to be that of immature birds.Hinkelmann, C. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). White-whiskered Hermit (''Phaethornis yaruqui''), 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.whwher1.01 retrieved December 1, 2021 White-whiskered Hermit (F)

Description

The white-whiskered hermit is about long. Males weigh and females . This medium-sized hermit has a bronzy crown and iridescent bluish green upperparts. Its underparts are green to dark gray. The face has a black "mask" with a buffy

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 ...

and a white gular stripe. The male's bill is almost straight. The female has a shorter and gently decurved bill, shorter wings, more grayish underparts, and a longer tail than the male.

Distribution and habitat

The white-whiskered hermit is found from Colombia's northern Chocó Department south through western Ecuador to

El Oro Province El Oro (; ''oro'' = gold) is the southernmost of Ecuador's coastal provinces. It was named for its historically important gold production. Today it is one of the world's major exporters of bananas. The capital is Machala. History The area was ...

. It has also been reported in Panama near the Colombian border. It inhabits humid mid-elevation and montane forest, humid

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. ...

, dense shrublands, and plantations. In elevation it usually occurs below but has been recorded as high as .

Behavior

Movement

The white-whiskered hermit is primarily sedentary but apparently makes seasonal elevation movements in Ecuador.

Feeding

The white-whiskered hermit is a " trap-line" feeder like other hermit hummingbirds, visiting a circuit of a wide variety of flowering plants for nectar. It also consumes small arthropods.

Breeding

The white-whiskered hermit's breeding season has not been described, though it appears to span from November to July. The nest is a cone-shaped cup suspended from the underside of a drooping leaf. The clutch size is two eggs.

Vocalization

The white-whiskered hermit's song is "a continuous series of rather harsh 'kree-u' notes". It also gives a series of "seek" notes while wagging its tail on a low perch at a

lek Lek or LEK may refer to: * Lek mating, mating in a lek, a type of animal territory in which males of a species gather * Albanian lek, the currency of Albania * Lek (magazine), a Norwegian softcore pornographic magazine * Lek (pharmaceutical comp ...

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 white-whiskered hermit as being of Least Concern though its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. It is " nerally common in wet forests utlong-term survival clearly depends on habitat conservation."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q259849 white-whiskered hermit Birds of Colombia Birds of Ecuador Hummingbird species of South America white-whiskered hermit white-whiskered hermit