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White-crested Coquette | Lophornis adorabilis
Witkuifkoketkolibrie | Coqueta crestiblanca
The White-crested Coquette occurs only in Costa Rica and western Panama. The male has a long white crest, a green throat with elongated side feathers and a plain rufous belly. The species lives on the Pacific slope, in the hills and lower mountains, and often appears only temporarily where plants are in bloom.
Voice
Rather silent; a soft, dry tsip. The wing sound is a soft hum.
Recording: Andrew Spencer — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
7–8 cm, with a short, straight, reddish bill with a dark tip. The upperparts are bronze-green with a whitish band across the rump; the tail is largely rufous. The male has a glittering green forehead and a green throat with elongated green feathers at the sides, a long white crest projecting backwards, and plain rufous underparts. The female lacks crest and throat tufts; she has a green crown, a whitish throat with dark speckling and rufous underparts.
Confusion species
Black-crested Coquette Lophornis helenae lives on the Caribbean slope; the male has a black crest and spotted underparts, the female pale, spotted underparts. The male Rufous-crested Coquette Lophornis delattrei in Panama has a rufous crest and greenish underparts. Green Thorntail Discosura conversii also has a white rump band, but the male has wire-like tail feathers and the female a dark throat with a white malar stripe.
Habitat
Edges of humid forest, old secondary forest, semi-open country with scattered trees and hedges, shade coffee and gardens, mainly between about 300 and 1200 m. It feeds at flowering shrubs and trees along edges and catches small insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Endemic to the guide area. In Costa Rica on the Pacific slope, from the southern edge of the Central Valley and the valley of the río General south to the Térraba and Coto Brus valleys; in western Panama in Chiriquí province.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In southern Costa Rica, for example around San Isidro de El General and San Vito, at flowering shrubs and hedges along forest edges and in gardens. Numbers vary strongly with flowering; where a shrub is in full bloom, the same birds may return for days on end.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Locally fairly common but irregular. Its small range lies in a region where much forest has been cleared; the species does use semi-open country and gardens.
Scientific name
Lophornis adorabilis | Salvin, 1870
Salvin described the species in 1870 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Lophornis was introduced in 1829 by Lesson. Lophornis is Greek, from lophos 'crest' and ornis 'bird', after the males' crests. adorabilis is Latin for 'adorable, delightful', after the handsome white-crested male. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bugaba, Chiriquí, Panama.