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Rufous-breasted Hermit | Glaucis hirsutus
Roodborstheremietkolibrie | Ermitaño pechicanelo | Balança-rabo-de-bico-torto
The Rufous-breasted Hermit is a hermit with a decurved bill, rufous underparts and a rufous tail with a black band. It lives in heliconia thickets along rivers and forest edges in the lowlands east of the Andes. Like other hermits it flies a fixed route along scattered flowers.
Voice
A high, sharp tseep in flight; the song is a short series of high, squeaky notes.
Recording: John V. Moore — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
10–12 cm, with a fairly long, distinctly decurved bill with a yellowish lower mandible. The upperparts are bronzy to olive green. The face has a dark mask with pale stripes above and below. The throat is dull greyish brown, the breast and belly are cinnamon-rufous. The tail is rounded, rufous with a broad black band before the white tips; the central feathers are green. The sexes are similar.
Confusion species
Bronzy Hermit Glaucis aeneus is more coppery above and darker rufous below, and lives west of the Andes. Pale-tailed Barbthroat Threnetes leucurus has a blackish throat with an orange-rufous breast band, a grey belly and pale outer tail feathers. Hermits of the genus Phaethornis, such as Reddish Hermit Phaethornis ruber, have a pointed tail and are smaller or have elongated central tail feathers.
Habitat
Heliconia thickets along rivers and streams, river islands, forest edges, secondary forest, várzea, gardens and plantations in the lowlands, up to about 1000 m. It visits mainly flowers of heliconias and other plants with tubular flowers in the understorey. The nest hangs from the underside of a heliconia or palm leaf, often over water.
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 Caribbean lowlands in the north and in the lowlands east of the Andes. In Ecuador in the eastern lowlands. In Peru in the Amazonian lowlands. In Bolivia in the lowlands of the north and east. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area from eastern Panama through Venezuela, the Guianas, Trinidad, Tobago and Grenada to most of Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Wait at flowering heliconias along riverbanks and forest edges in the Amazonian lowlands. A bird returns to the same flowers at intervals.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range and also uses forest edges, secondary forest and gardens.
Scientific name
Glaucis hirsutus | (Gmelin, 1788)
Gmelin described the species in 1788 as Trochilus hirsutus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Glaucis was introduced in 1831 by Boie. The genus name comes from Greek glaukos, 'blue-grey' or 'pale green'. The species name is Latin hirsutus, 'hairy' or 'shaggy'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Northeastern Brazil.