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Lesser Violetear | Colibri cyanotus
Kleine violetoorkolibrie | Colibrí oreja violeta menor
The Lesser Violetear is the green violetear of the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama, which occurs further south through the Andes. Until 2016 it was treated as one species with the Mexican Violetear. In the highlands of Costa Rica it is one of the commonest hummingbirds of forest edges, pastures and gardens, where males sing for hours from a bare branch.
Voice
The male sings from an exposed perch an endlessly repeated, dry and rhythmic chip-tsup, chip-tsup. The call is a dry chit.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
9–10 cm, with a straight, medium-length black bill. The plumage is glittering green, with a narrow violet-blue ear patch behind the eye. The breast is green, with no or at most a faint blue patch. The tail is blue-green, with a broad dark band before the tip. The female is slightly duller, with a smaller ear patch. Young birds have buff fringes to the crown and rump feathers.
Confusion species
Mexican Violetear Colibri thalassinus does not occur in Costa Rica and Panama; it is larger, has a broader ear patch and a violet-blue breast patch. Brown Violetear Colibri delphinae is greyish brown. Fiery-throated Hummingbird Panterpe insignis is darker, with a blue breast and a multicoloured throat. Talamanca Hummingbird Eugenes spectabilis and Green-crowned Brilliant Heliodoxa jacula are larger, with a white spot behind the eye.
Habitat
Edges and clearings of montane rainforest and oak forest, pastures with shrubs and scattered trees, scrub, gardens and shade coffee, mostly between about 1000 and 3000 m, in the Talamanca to above the treeline. After breeding many birds move down to lower slopes. It feeds on nectar from flowering shrubs and herbs and catches small insects in the air.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area in the mountains of Costa Rica, from the Cordillera de Guanacaste and Tilarán through the Cordillera Central to the Talamanca, and in western Panama in Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, Ngäbe-Buglé and Veraguas. Outside the guide area in the mountains of Venezuela and through the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
At forest edges and in gardens in the highlands of Costa Rica, such as around Monteverde, on the slopes of the volcanoes of the Cordillera Central and along the Cerro de la Muerte. A singing male is often first identified by its monotonous song.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is common in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama and benefits from clearings, shrubby pastures and gardens.
Scientific name
Colibri cyanotus | (Bourcier, 1843)
Bourcier described the species in 1843 as Trochilus cyanotus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Colibri was introduced in 1824 by Spix. Colibri is the Spanish and French name for a hummingbird, supposedly based on a Carib word. cyanotus is Greek, from kuanos 'dark blue' and ous, ōtos 'ear', after the violet-blue ear patch. The specimen the first description was based on came from Caracas, Venezuela.