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Rufous-breasted Hermit | Glaucis hirsutus
Roodborstheremietkolibrie | Ermitaño pechicanelo
The Rufous-breasted Hermit belongs to the hermits, dull-coloured hummingbirds with a long, curved bill that live in the forest understorey. Instead of defending a territory, it flies a fixed route past scattered flowers. Panama is the north-western limit of a large range in South America; further west Bronzy Hermit takes its place.
Voice
A high, penetrating sweet, often 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 mandible yellow with a dark tip. The upperparts are bronze-green, the underparts uniform rufous. The head shows a dark eyestripe between a pale stripe above and a pale moustachial stripe. The rounded tail is rufous with a black band before the white tips; the central feathers are green. The female is slightly duller and has a shorter, more strongly curved bill.
Confusion species
Bronzy Hermit Glaucis aeneus of western Panama and Costa Rica is almost identical but has more coppery bronze upperparts and darker rufous underparts. Band-tailed Barbthroat Threnetes ruckeri has a blackish throat, a cinnamon breast band and a grey belly. Long-billed Hermit Phaethornis longirostris, Pale-bellied Hermit Phaethornis anthophilus and Stripe-throated Hermit Phaethornis striigularis have elongated, white-tipped central tail feathers.
Habitat
Understorey of humid forest and secondary forest, forest edges, heliconia thickets and ravines, often along running water; also shady cacao plantations and gardens at the forest edge, from sea level to about 900 m. It mainly visits flowers whose corolla matches the length and curvature of its bill, such as heliconias, and also eats small arthropods. The small nest hangs from the underside of an overhanging leaf, one to two metres above the ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in Panama, on both sides of the country, mainly from Coclé, Colón and the Canal Area east to Guna Yala and Darién, where the species is fairly common. Further west, in Veraguas and Bocas del Toro, scarce, and there largely replaced by Bronzy Hermit. Outside the guide area through northern and central South America to Bolivia and Brazil, and on Trinidad, Tobago and Grenada.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along forest trails in the Canal Area, such as Pipeline Road in Soberanía National Park, and in the lowlands of Darién. The chances are best at a flowering heliconia in the understorey: the bird returns regularly along its route.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is widespread and common and tolerates secondary forest and plantations as long as there is 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.