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Dot-eared Coquette | Lophornis gouldii
Goulds koketkolibrie | Coqueta moteada | Topetinho-do-brasil-central
The Dot-eared Coquette is a tiny hummingbird of forest edges, gallery forest and cerrado in northern and central Brazil. The male has a rufous crest and white ear tufts with green dots, to which the English name refers. In the guide area the species has been recorded only as a rare vagrant in eastern Bolivia.
Voice
Usually silent. When feeding a soft, high tsip; the wings produce a low, bee-like hum when hovering.
Recording: Andrew Spencer — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
7 cm, with a short, straight bill. The male has a glittering golden-green forehead, a dark rufous crest and a glittering emerald throat. White tufts project from the sides of the head, each feather with a green dot at the tip. The upperparts are bronzy green, with a white band across the rump, and the underparts are greyish green. The central tail feathers are bronzy green, the others rufous with bronzy green tips. The female lacks the crest and tufts, and has a rufous throat with a greyish green lower border, the same white rump band and a bronzy tail with rufous tips.
Confusion species
Butterfly Coquette Lophornis verreauxii, which occurs in northern and central Bolivia, has in the male a green crest with red feather tips and green, white-tipped cheek tufts. Rufous-crested Coquette Lophornis delattrei also has a rufous crest, but no white ear tufts, and lives in the Andean foothills. Females of these species are very similar; note the throat colour and the locality.
Habitat
Forest edges, gallery forest, semi-open country with scattered flowering trees and shrubs, cerrado and dry semi-deciduous forest, from sea level to about 800 m. It visits small flowers in tree crowns and shrubs and takes small insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In the guide area recorded only as a rare vagrant in the department of Santa Cruz in eastern Bolivia. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in northern and central Brazil, from the mouth of the Amazon in Pará south-west to Mato Grosso and Goiás.
How and when to look
A vagrant may turn up at flowering trees at forest edges and in semi-open country in eastern Santa Cruz department, near the Brazilian border. The male is identified by the rufous crest and the white, green-dotted ear tufts.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. Deforestation and the construction of dams in the southern Amazon basin are expected to reduce the population.
Scientific name
Lophornis gouldii | (Lesson, 1832)
Lesson described the species in 1832 as Ornismya gouldii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Lophornis was introduced in 1829 by Lesson. The genus name combines Greek lophos, 'crest', with ornis, 'bird'. The species name honours John Gould (1804–1881), an English ornithologist and publisher of illustrated bird books, including works on hummingbirds. The specimen the first description was based on came from (per the description).