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Blue-bearded Helmetcrest | Oxypogon cyanolaemus
Blauwbaardhelmkolibrie | Chivito de Santa Marta | Capacete-de-barba-azul
The Blue-bearded Helmetcrest lives only in the páramo of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. The male has a long, pointed crest and a narrow beard with a blue central stripe. Between 1946 and 2015 the species was not reliably recorded; since then it has been found again at several sites in the high mountains.
Voice
Poorly documented. A soft, dry tsit; in flight the hum of the wings can sometimes be heard.
Recording: Manuel Espejo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, with a short, straight black bill. The male has a long, pointed crest of black and white feathers, a black face mask bordered with white and a narrow, elongated beard on the throat, white at the sides and glittering cobalt blue in the centre. The upperparts are bronze-green, the underparts greyish with small green spots. The slightly forked tail is bronzy, with white in the outer feathers. The female has no crest and no beard; her throat is white with small dark spots. Young males have a short crest and a short beard.
Confusion species
It is the only helmetcrest in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Black-backed Thornbill Ramphomicron dorsale lives in the same mountains, but mainly lower, at forest edges and in scrub; it is smaller, with a very short bill and no crest, and the male is black above. Tyrian Metaltail Metallura tyrianthina is plain green, with a reddish tail, without crest or beard. Green-bearded Helmetcrest Oxypogon guerinii of the Eastern Cordillera has a green central stripe in the beard.
Habitat
Open páramo with frailejones (Espeletia), grass tussocks, rocks and low shrubs, roughly between 3200 and 4800 m. It takes nectar from frailejones and other low flowers, often clinging to the flower rather than hovering, and also catches small insects. It breeds in the rainy season; the nest is made of plant down and placed among the leaves of a frailejón or against a rock face or bank.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Only in Colombia, in the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Magdalena, Cesar and La Guajira). Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The páramo of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta can only be reached on foot, on a hike of several days; the area is largely indigenous territory with restricted access. Search at flowering frailejones, especially in the morning.
Conservation status
Endangered. The habitat is very small and is degraded by fires and cattle grazing; climate change may shrink the páramo further.
Scientific name
Oxypogon cyanolaemus | Salvin & Godman, 1880
Salvin & Godman described the species in 1880 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Oxypogon was introduced in 1848 by Gould. The genus name combines Greek oxus, 'sharp, pointed', with pōgōn, 'beard'. The species name combines Greek kuanos, 'dark blue', with laimos, 'throat', after the blue beard. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.