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Green-breasted Mango | Anthracothorax prevostii
Groenborstmango | Mango pechiverde
The Green-breasted Mango is a large hummingbird of the lowlands of Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Within the area of this guide it occurs only on San Andrés and Providencia, home to an endemic subspecies, A. p. hendersoni. There it is a familiar bird of gardens and coastal woodland.
Voice
A short, high, sharp sip or sik, mainly in flight. The song is a buzzy, repeated series tsi si-si-si si-si-si.
Recording: Paul Driver — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–12 cm, with a curved black bill. The male is glossy bronze-green above and green below; a velvety black stripe runs down the centre of chin and throat, bordered at the sides by glittering blue-green. The tail is purplish red with dark tips. The female is green above and white below, with a dark central stripe from throat to belly; the outer tail feathers are blue-black with a purple base and whitish tips. Juveniles resemble the female but have rusty edges along the central stripe.
Confusion species
On San Andrés and Providencia this is the only mango and the only large, curve-billed hummingbird. Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris, a rare visitor from North America, is much smaller, with a straight bill and white underparts. Elsewhere in the region Black-throated Mango Anthracothorax nigricollis and Green-throated Mango Anthracothorax viridigula differ mainly in the pattern of throat and breast, but they occur only in Trinidad and Tobago.
Habitat
Coastal woodland, coastal scrub, mangrove edges, secondary forest, coconut and fruit plantings and gardens with flowering trees and shrubs, from sea level to the hills of Providencia. Feeds at flowering trees and hawks insects from an open perch.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Resident on San Andrés and Providencia (Colombia), as an endemic subspecies. Isolated records from Bonaire, the Turks and Caicos and Trinidad in the GBIF data are unconfirmed. Outside the region from eastern Mexico through Central America to Colombia and Venezuela; a vagrant to the United States.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On both islands best in gardens and at flowering trees along the coast road, and on Providencia also in vegetation on the lower slopes. Males often perch in view on an open branch.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is common throughout its range. The small population on San Andrés and Providencia is, however, vulnerable to hurricanes; Hurricane Iota struck Providencia severely in 2020.
Scientific name
Anthracothorax prevostii | (Lesson, 1832)
Lesson described the species in 1832 as Trochilus prevostii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Anthracothorax was introduced in 1831 by Boie. Anthracothorax is Greek, from anthrax 'coal' (i.e. 'black') and thōrax 'chest', after the black central stripe on breast and belly. prevostii honours a French Prévost, probably the naturalist and illustrator Florent Prévost (1794–1870); some suggest the artist Alphonse Prévost instead. The specimen the first description was based on came from South America (unspecified).