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Hispaniolan Emerald | Riccordia swainsonii
Hispaniolasmaragdkolibrie | Esmeralda de La Española
The Hispaniolan Emerald is a hummingbird of the mountains of Hispaniola, where it lives mainly in humid montane forest and the coffee plantations below it. The male differs from related emeralds in having a black patch on the breast.
Voice
Sharp, metallic chip notes, sometimes in a long series.
Recording: Albert Lastukhin & Max Lastukhin — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
8.5–10.5 cm, the female smaller than the male, with a fairly short, straight bill and, in both sexes, a small white spot behind the eye. The male is dark green with a bronze tinge above, has a glittering green throat with a large black patch on the breast below it, and a deeply forked, dark brown to blackish tail. The female is green above and grey below, darker on the belly; the outer tail feathers have a grey base, a dark band and a white tip.
Confusion species
Vervain Hummingbird Mellisuga minima is much smaller, with pale grey underparts and a short tail. Hispaniolan Mango Anthracothorax dominicus is much larger, with a long, curved bill; the male has a black throat and breast and a purplish-red tail. The female Hispaniolan Emerald resembles a female Vervain Hummingbird but is larger and longer-tailed.
Habitat
Dense humid montane and cloud forest, forest edges, pine forest, montane scrub and shaded coffee plantations, mostly between 300 and 2,500 m, sometimes lower, down to sea level. It feeds in the lower and middle layers of the forest and catches small insects. It breeds from January to June, sometimes into August. The species tolerates man-modified landscapes as long as patches of forest remain.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Endemic to Hispaniola, in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, mainly in the mountain ranges: the Cordillera Central, the Sierra de Bahoruco, the Sierra de Neiba and, in Haiti, the Massif de la Selle and the Massif de la Hotte. It does not occur outside Hispaniola.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the Dominican Republic found in the Sierra de Bahoruco, for example along the road to Zapotén, and in the forests of the Cordillera Central around Jarabacoa and Constanza. Best looked for at flowering shrubs along forest edges and trails.
Conservation status
Not threatened, although its population size and trend are unknown. The forests of Hispaniola have been heavily cleared, especially in Haiti, but the species also occurs in plantations and secondary forest.
Scientific name
Riccordia swainsonii | (Lesson, 1829)
Lesson described the species in 1829 as Ornismya Swainsonii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Riccordia was introduced in 1854 by Reichenbach. Riccordia honours the French surgeon and naturalist Alexandre Ricord (b. 1798), after whom the type species ricordii is also named. swainsonii honours the English naturalist and illustrator William Swainson (1789–1855). The specimen the first description was based on came from Hispaniola.