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Rufous-webbed Brilliant | Heliodoxa branickii
Roodvleugelbriljantkolibrie | Brillante alicanela | Brilhante-de-asa-ruiva
The Rufous-webbed Brilliant is a small brilliant of foothill and lower montane forest of the Yungas in Peru and Bolivia. It owes its name to the rufous inner webs of the flight feathers, which show mainly in flight. The male has a small, glittering pink throat patch.
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Voice
A sharp, dry tsik, often in series; poorly known.
Recording: Todd Mark — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, with a straight black bill of medium length and a small white spot behind the eye. The male is green, with a glittering green forehead and breast and a small, glittering pink patch on the throat; the undertail coverts are white. The inner webs of the flight feathers are rufous and form a warm panel in the wing in flight. The tail is dark bronzy green and forked. The female is duller, with whitish underparts spotted green and a pale malar stripe, and also shows rufous in the wing.
Confusion species
Pink-throated Brilliant Heliodoxa gularis has a similar throat patch, but lacks the rufous in the wing and lives further north. Violet-fronted Brilliant Heliodoxa leadbeateri is larger, the male with a violet forehead and no rufous in the wing. Gould's Jewelfront Heliodoxa aurescens has a rufous breast band instead of a pink throat patch.
Habitat
The interior and edges of humid foothill and lower montane forest of the Yungas, also in bamboo and old secondary forest, roughly between 600 and 1700 m. It feeds in the lower and middle strata at flowers and catches small insects. Little is known about its breeding biology.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru on the eastern slope in the centre and south of the country. In Bolivia in the Yungas of the north-west, mainly in La Paz. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In foothill forest of the Yungas, for example in the lower parts of the road to Manu in Peru, along forest edges and at flowering shrubs. In flight watch for the rufous in the wing.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is local and poorly known; deforestation of the foothills affects its habitat.
Scientific name
Heliodoxa branickii | (Taczanowski, 1874)
Taczanowski described the species in 1874 as Lampraster branickii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Heliodoxa was introduced in 1850 by Gould. The genus name combines Greek hēlios, 'sun', with doxa, 'glory' or 'splendour'. The species name honours Count Konstanty Branicki (1824–1884), a Polish landowner and patron of natural history who funded expeditions to Peru. The specimen the first description was based on came from Monterico, Ayacucho, Peru.