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Rufous-breasted Hermit | Glaucis hirsutus
Roodborstheremietkolibrie | Ermitaño pechicanelo
The Rufous-breasted Hermit belongs to the hermits, dull-coloured hummingbirds with long, curved bills that live in the forest understorey. Rather than defending a territory, it flies a regular route between scattered flowers. It is the only hermit that reaches Grenada. Older literature calls it Hairy Hermit.
Voice
A high, penetrating sweet, often given in flight as the bird dashes along its route.
Recording: John V. Moore — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–12 cm, with a long, strongly curved bill of just over 3 cm; the upper mandible is black, the lower yellow with a dark tip. The upperparts are bronze-green, the underparts uniform rufous. The head shows a dark eyestripe between a pale supercilium and a pale malar stripe. The rounded tail is rufous with a black band before the white tips; the central feathers are green. The female is slightly duller, with a shorter, more strongly curved bill.
Confusion species
Green Hermit Phaethornis guy and Little Hermit Phaethornis longuemareus have elongated, white-tipped central tail feathers; the former is larger and dark green with grey or green underparts, the latter much smaller and ochre-coloured. Brown Violetear Colibri delphinae has a nearly straight bill, a violet ear patch and a glittering throat stripe. On Grenada no other hummingbird resembles this species.
Habitat
The understorey of humid and secondary forest, forest edges and ravines, often along running water; also shady cacao plantations and gardens at the forest edge, from sea level into the hills. It mainly visits flowers whose corolla matches the length and curve of its bill, such as heliconias, and also takes small arthropods. The small nest hangs from the underside of a drooping leaf, one to two metres above the ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Resident in Trinidad, Tobago and Grenada. Fairly common in forested areas of Trinidad and Tobago; scarcer on Grenada, mainly in the forest of the mountainous interior. Outside the region from Panama through northern and central South America to Bolivia and Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Tobago along the Gilpin Trace in the Main Ridge forest, where nests are also found; in Trinidad at the Asa Wright Nature Centre; on Grenada in Grand Etang National Park. A flowering heliconia in the understorey gives the best chance, as the bird returns to it regularly on its route.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is widespread and common and tolerates secondary forest and plantations, provided there is an understorey with suitable flowers.
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. Glaucis comes from Greek glaukos 'blue-grey, glaucous', after the dull greenish plumage. hirsutus is Latin for 'hairy, bristly', perhaps after the shaggy, drab plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from northeastern Brazil.