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Peruvian Racket-Tail | Ocreatus peruanus
Peruaans vlagstaartpluimbroekje | Colibrí de raquetas peruano | Beija-flor-de-raquete-peruano
The Peruvian Racket-Tail is a tiny hummingbird of the eastern slope of the Andes in Ecuador and northern Peru. The male has two greatly elongated, bare outer tail feathers ending in a dark racket, and both sexes wear dense downy puffs around the legs. The former Booted Racket-Tail has been split; this form has pale buff leg puffs.
Voice
A short, high tsip or tsik, often in flight, and a soft twitter. The flight is buzzy and insect-like; in display the male hovers in front of the female and swings the rackets back and forth.
Recording: Niels Krabbe — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
8–15 cm: the male including the elongated tail feathers 12–15 cm, the female 7–9 cm. Short, straight black bill and a small white spot behind the eye. The male is glossy green, with a glittering green throat and breast; the tail is deeply forked, with two long, bare outer feathers ending in blue-black, oval rackets. The leg puffs are pale buff. The female is green above and white below with green spots, with a short, forked, white-tipped tail and smaller leg puffs. Young males have shorter rackets.
Confusion species
White-booted Racket-Tail Ocreatus underwoodii has white leg puffs and lives in Colombia and on the western slope of Ecuador. Rufous-booted Racket-Tail Ocreatus addae has rufous to cinnamon leg puffs and lives further south. The female Wire-crested Thorntail Discosura popelairii has a blackish throat and belly with a white malar stripe and a white band across the rump.
Habitat
Edges and clearings of humid montane forest, old secondary growth, wooded ravines and gardens near forest, roughly between 1000 and 2500 m. It feeds at small flowers in the middle and lower strata, often along a regular route, and visits feeders. The nest is a small cup of moss and plant down on a twig or leaf.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes. In Peru on the eastern slope in the north of the country. Absent from Colombia, Bolivia and the Galápagos; Colombia and the western slope of Ecuador hold White-booted Racket-Tail, and the area further south Rufous-booted Racket-Tail. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
At feeders and flowering shrubs along forest edges at lodges on the eastern slope of Ecuador and northern Peru. Watch for the floating rackets behind the bird as it hovers among the flowers.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated in the current circumscription of the species. It also lives in secondary forest and forest edges; deforestation on the eastern slope affects its habitat locally.
Scientific name
Ocreatus peruanus | (Gould, 1849)
Gould described the species in 1849 as Spathura peruana; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Ocreatus was introduced in 1846 by Gould. The genus name comes from Latin ocreatus, 'wearing greaves', after the conspicuous leg puffs. The species name refers to Peru, not necessarily the type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from Moyobamba, Peru.