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Grey-breasted Sabrewing | Campylopterus largipennis
Grijsborstsabelvleugel | Alasable pechigrís | Asa-de-sabre-cinza
The Grey-breasted Sabrewing is a large, plainly coloured hummingbird of the Amazonian lowlands, green above and grey below, with white tail corners. In the male the shafts of the outer primaries are broadened and curved, which gives the sabrewings their name. Birds in the guide area belong to the western form aequatorialis; the classification of the group is in flux.
Voice
A loud, sharp chip, often repeated. The song is a rapid series of squeaky and twittering notes from a perch in the lower forest.
Recording: Wim Jacobs — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a fairly long, slightly decurved, black bill. The upperparts are glossy green and the underparts uniform grey. There is a small white spot behind the eye. The central tail feathers are dark green and the outer ones blue-black with large white tips, which show as white tail corners in flight. The sexes are alike; the male has broadened shafts to the outer primaries.
Confusion species
The female Napo Sabrewing Campylopterus villaviscensio is smaller, with smaller, grey tail tips, and lives higher, in the foothills. The female Fork-tailed Woodnymph Thalurania furcata is smaller, with a shorter, straight bill and a slightly forked tail with small white tips. The female White-necked Jacobin Florisuga mellivora has a scaly blue-green throat and breast and a white belly.
Habitat
The interior and edges of humid lowland forest, both terra firme and várzea, especially along streams and rivers, also forest edges and older secondary forest, up to about 1000 m. It forages along a regular route at flowers in the lower and middle levels, including Heliconia, and catches insects. The nest is a cup of moss and plant fibres on a branch or vine above a stream.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Amazonian lowlands of the south-east. In Ecuador and Peru in the lowlands east of the Andes. In Bolivia in the northern lowlands. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela, the Guianas and Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search along streams and forest edges in the lowlands, for example at lodges along the Napo in Ecuador or in Madre de Dios in Peru. Look for the white tail corners as it flies along the edge of a clearing.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The range is very large; deforestation affects the habitat locally.
Scientific name
Campylopterus largipennis | (Boddaert, 1783)
Boddaert described the species in 1783 as Trochilus largipennis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Campylopterus was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. The genus name combines Greek kampulos, 'bent', with pteron, 'wing', referring to the thickened, curved shafts of the outer primaries. The species name combines Latin largus, 'large', with penna, 'feather, wing'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.