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Spangled Coquette | Lophornis stictolophus
Spikkelkoketkolibrie | Coqueta lentejuelada | Topetinho-lantejoulado
The Spangled Coquette is a tiny hummingbird of forest edges and semi-open country at the foot of the eastern slope of the Andes, from Venezuela to northern Peru. The male has a short, full, rufous crest in which every feather has a black spot at the tip. With its bee-like flight and raised tail it resembles a large insect.
Voice
Usually silent. When feeding a high, sharp tsip; the wings produce a low, bee-like hum when hovering.
Recording: Jerome Fischer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
7 cm, with a short, straight, red bill with a black tip. Both sexes are bronzy green above, with a white band across the rump. The male has a short, full, rufous crest with black spots at the feather tips, rufous and glittering green cheek tufts and a glittering green throat with a few white feather tips. The underparts are bronzy green; the outer tail feathers are cinnamon-rufous with black tips. The female lacks the crest and tufts, and has a whitish throat with large rufous spots and cinnamon underparts, often spotted green; her tail is cinnamon with a black band and pale tips.
Confusion species
Rufous-crested Coquette Lophornis delattrei is very similar; the male has a longer crest of narrow feathers in which only the longest have dark tips, and the female has a rufous forehead and a plain cinnamon throat. Butterfly Coquette Lophornis verreauxii has a green crest and green, white-tipped cheek tufts and lives mainly in the lowlands. Wire-crested Thorntail Discosura popelairii also has a white rump band, but the male has a thin, wire-like crest and a long, pointed tail.
Habitat
Edges and clearings of humid forest, semi-open country with scattered flowering trees and shrubs, scrub and gardens, in the foothills and lower mountains up to about 1300 m; also in drier, shrubby areas. It visits small flowers, often high in flowering trees, and also flowering shrubs and hedges.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia local at the foot of the eastern slope of the Andes; in Ecuador scarce on the eastern slope; in Peru in the north, mainly in the departments of San Martín and Amazonas. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Venezuela; there are also reports from western Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
At flowering trees and shrubs at forest edges and in lodge gardens in the foothills, for example around Tarapoto in northern Peru. Look for a small, insect-like bird with a white band across the rump.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is scarce and local throughout, but also occurs in semi-open, human-altered country.
Scientific name
Lophornis stictolophus | Salvin & Elliot, 1873
Salvin & Elliot described the species in 1873 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Lophornis was introduced in 1829 by Lesson. The genus name combines Greek lophos, 'crest', with ornis, 'bird'. The species name comes from Greek stiktos, 'spotted', and lophos, 'crest', after the spotted crest. The specimen the first description was based on came from Antioquia, Colombia.