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Grey-bellied Comet | Taphrolesbia griseiventris
Grijsbuikkomeetkolibrie | Colibrí ventrigrís | Cometa-de-barriga-cinza
The Grey-bellied Comet is a large hummingbird with a long, deeply forked tail, found only in dry, rocky canyons of the Marañón drainage in northern and central Peru. It is known from a small number of sites and for a long time almost only from old specimens. Of the comets of the guide area it is the only one with plain grey underparts.
Voice
Poorly described. Probably mainly short, dry calls as in related species.
Recording: Manuel Roncal- Rabanal — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14–17 cm, much of it tail, with a straight, black bill of medium length. The upperparts are bronzy green, with a small white spot behind the eye. The underparts are pale grey. The male has a small, glittering blue throat patch and a long, deeply forked tail with glossy green to golden feather tips. The female lacks the blue throat and has a shorter, less deeply forked tail. Juveniles have a rufous throat and breast.
Confusion species
Bronze-tailed Comet Polyonymus caroli has green underparts, a glittering pink throat and a shorter, bronze tail. Red-tailed Comet Sappho sparganurus has a fiery red, glossy tail. Green-tailed Trainbearer Lesbia nuna and Black-tailed Trainbearer Lesbia victoriae are smaller, green below, with a shorter bill and a very long, thin tail. Bearded Mountaineer Oreonympha nobilis has white underparts, a dark head and a small beard, and lives further south.
Habitat
Open, semi-arid country: barren hills, steep dry slopes with cacti, agaves, shrubs and bromeliads, deep gorges, rocky and inaccessible places, streamside thickets and partly cultivated slopes, roughly between 2600 and 3500 m. It visits the flowers of columnar cacti, agaves, Puya and amaryllids, where it competes with the Giant Hummingbird Patagona gigas. Nothing is known about its breeding.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Only in Peru: in the Andes of the north and centre, in the Marañón drainage and adjacent valleys, from southern Cajamarca through La Libertad and Áncash to western Huánuco. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Not found outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search dry, rocky gorges with flowering agaves and cacti above about 2600 m in the Marañón valley, for example around Cajabamba in Cajamarca. Watch for a large, grey-bellied hummingbird feeding at flowering agaves.
Conservation status
Endangered. The range is small and the species is known from few sites; degradation of the dry scrub by grazing, fire and farming is a risk. Little is known about its numbers.
Scientific name
Taphrolesbia griseiventris | (Taczanowski, 1883)
Taczanowski described the species in 1883 as Cynanthus griseiventris; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Taphrolesbia was introduced in 1918 by Simon. The genus name comes from Greek tephra, 'ashes', and Lesbia, another hummingbird genus, after the ash-grey underparts. The specific name comes from Latin griseus, 'grey', and venter, 'belly': grey-bellied. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paucal, Peru.