All species › Swifts › Hummingbirds › Grey-chinned Hermit
Grey-chinned Hermit | Phaethornis griseogularis
Grijskinheremietkolibrie | Ermitaño barbigrís | Rabo-branco-de-garganta-cinza
The Grey-chinned Hermit is a small hermit of the foothills and lower montane forest. It is identified by its grey chin and throat. A separate subspecies, porcullae, lives in drier forest on the western slope of the Andes in north-western Peru.
Voice
The song is a high, squeaky, constantly repeated phrase from the lek. The call is a sharp tsip.
Recording: Mauricio Cuellar Ramirez (@Birding.travel) — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9 cm, with a slightly decurved bill and a graduated tail. The upperparts are bronzy green, the rump rufous. The head has a dark mask with a pale supercilium and malar stripe. The chin and throat are grey, the rest of the underparts greyish buff to cinnamon. The tail is dark with pale tips; the central feathers are slightly elongated, with whitish tips. The sexes are nearly alike.
Confusion species
Black-throated Hermit Phaethornis atrimentalis has a blackish throat stripe and lives mainly lower, in the lowlands. Reddish Hermit Phaethornis ruber is smaller and brighter rufous below, without a grey throat. Stripe-throated Hermit Phaethornis striigularis has a streaked throat and lives west of the Andes in more humid forest.
Habitat
Understorey and edges of humid foothill and lower montane forest, secondary forest and scrub, mostly between about 500 and 1800 m, locally lower. The subspecies porcullae lives in drier, semi-deciduous forest and scrub on the western slope. It visits understorey flowers and catches small arthropods. The nest hangs from the underside of a leaf.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia on the eastern slope of the Eastern Andes and in the Serranía de la Macarena. In Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes. In Peru on the eastern slope in the north, and as porcullae on the western slope in the north-west. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the tepui region and the far north of Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Check forest edges and trails with flowering plants in the foothills of the eastern slope in Ecuador and northern Peru. In north-western Peru it lives in the dry forest of the western slope, for example around the Porculla pass.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated for the Red List in its current species limits. Deforestation affects its habitat locally, but the species also uses secondary forest and forest edges.
Scientific name
Phaethornis griseogularis | Gould, 1851
Gould described the species in 1851 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Phaethornis was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. The genus name combines Ancient Greek phaethōn, 'sun', with ornis, 'bird'. The species name combines Latin griseus, 'grey', with gula, 'throat', after the grey throat and chin. The specimen the first description was based on came from Colombia.