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Purple-bibbed Whitetip | Urosticte benjamini
Wittipkolibrie | Puntiblanca pechipúrpura | Ponta-branca-de-babador-roxo
The Purple-bibbed Whitetip is a small green hummingbird of lower montane forest on the Pacific slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador. The male has a glittering purple spot below the green throat and white tips to the central tail feathers. It usually feeds low, along forest edges and in the forest understorey.
Voice
A high, thin tsit, sometimes in rapid series.
Recording: rudy gelis — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
8–9 cm, with a straight black bill and a white stripe or spot behind the eye. The male is green, with a glittering green throat and below it a small, glittering purple spot; the tail is dark bronzy green and slightly forked, and the central feathers have broad white tips. The female is green above and white below, densely spotted green, and has white tips to the outer tail feathers.
Confusion species
Rufous-vented Whitetip Urosticte ruficrissa lives on the eastern slope; the male lacks the purple spot and has rufous undertail coverts. The female White-booted Racket-tail Ocreatus underwoodii is also white spotted green below, but has white leg puffs and a shorter bill. Speckled Hummingbird Adelomyia melanogenys is browner, with a dark ear patch and pale tail tips.
Habitat
Humid lower montane and foothill forest on the Pacific side, forest edges, clearings and older secondary forest, roughly between 700 and 2000 m. It feeds low to mid-level at small flowers, often as a trapliner following a fixed route between flowers, and catches 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 Colombia on the Pacific slope of the Western Andes. In Ecuador on the western slope of the Andes, mainly in the north and centre of the country. Absent from Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along forest edges and trails in the lower cloud forest north-west of Quito and at feeders in that area, where it often appears briefly between larger hummingbirds. In the male, look for the white tail tips.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Deforestation on the Pacific slope affects its habitat, but the species also occurs in secondary forest.
Scientific name
Urosticte benjamini | (Bourcier, 1851)
Bourcier described the species in 1851 as Trochilus Benjamini; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Urosticte was introduced in 1853 by Gould. The genus name comes from Greek oura, 'tail', and stiktos, 'spotted', after the white tail tips. The specific name honours Benjamin Leadbeater Jr. (1830–1890), English natural history dealer, son of John Leadbeater Sr. and grandson of Benjamin Leadbeater Sr. The specimen the first description was based on came from Gualea, Pichincha, Ecuador.