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Black-breasted Hillstar | Oreotrochilus melanogaster
Zwartborstbergnimf | Estrella de pecho negro | Estrela-de-peito-preto
The Black-breasted Hillstar lives only in the high Andes of central Peru. The male is the only hillstar with an entirely black breast and belly. It lives on the cold puna up to above 4500 m and survives night frosts in a deep torpor.
Voice
A high, sharp tseet and a dry twitter in chases.
Recording: Dan Lane — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, with a short, slightly decurved black bill. The male is olive-green to bronzy green above, with a glittering green throat. Breast and belly are black, the flanks brownish. The tail is mainly dark. The female is greyish brown above and pale brown to dingy white below, with a spotted throat; the outer tail feathers have white tips.
Confusion species
Green-headed Hillstar Oreotrochilus stolzmanni and Andean Hillstar Oreotrochilus estella have white underparts with a dark or chestnut stripe down the belly and a largely white tail. Olivaceous Thornbill Chalcostigma olivaceum also lives on the puna, but is plain dark olive-green, with a very short bill and a long tail. Females of hillstars are very similar; range is decisive.
Habitat
Puna grassland with rocks and ravines, slopes with low flowering shrubs, Polylepis groves and the edges of bofedales, roughly between 3500 and 4600 m. It visits mainly the flowers of Chuquiraga and other low shrubs and herbs, and catches small insects. The nest is attached in shelter under a rock overhang or against the wall of a ravine.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru in the highlands of the centre of the country, among others in the departments of Junín and Lima. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On the puna around Lake Junín and at Marcapomacocha in the high mountains above Lima, where birds feed at flowering shrubs among the rocks, especially in the morning.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Its range is limited, but its habitat is largely intact; grazing and mining affect it locally.
Scientific name
Oreotrochilus melanogaster | Gould, 1847
Gould described the species in 1847 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Oreotrochilus in that same work. The genus name combines Greek oros, 'mountain', with the hummingbird genus Trochilus. The species name combines Greek melas, 'black', with gastēr, 'belly'. The specimen the first description was based on came from (per the description).