The gorgeted puffleg (''Eriocnemis isabellae'') is a

Critically Endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

species of

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

in the "brilliants", tribe

Heliantheini Heliantheini is one of the two Tribe (biology), tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae of the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The other tribe in the subfamily is Lesbiini. The informal name "brilliants" has been proposed f ...

in subfamily

Lesbiinae Lesbiinae is one of the six subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into two tribes: Heliantheini ("brilliants") containing 14 genera and Lesbiini ("coquettes") containing 18 genera. Phylogeny A mol ...

. It is endemic to

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. It was discovered in 2005 and confirmed as a species new to science in 2007.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The first known example of the gorgeted puffleg was mist-netted in 2005. Subsequent visits to the area provided more captures and allowed comparison of the birds to specimens of other ''Eriocnemis'' pufflegs. The decision that it is a new species was published in 2007. Later that year the South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

accepted it for the South American list, and worldwide taxonomic systems soon followed suit.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021 The authors of the 2007 publication suggested that the new species, the black-breasted puffleg (''E. nigrivestis''), and the

glowing puffleg The glowing puffleg (''Eriocnemis vestita'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of t ...

(''E. vestita'') form a

superspecies In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. The gorgeted puffleg is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Description

The gorgeted puffleg is long and weighs about . It has a short, straight, black bill. Unique among pufflegs, the male has a glittering violet-blue

gorget A gorget ( ; ) was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the English medieval clothing, medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon (headgear), chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather Collar (c ...

edged with green. The male's upperparts are mostly blackish with golden olive green iridescence; the rump has a green gloss. The moderately forked tail is dark steely blue. The breast and belly are velvety black with green gloss on the sides and the undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

are blue. The leg puffs are white. The eye is dark brown and the legs blackish. The female's upperparts are a lighter bronzy green with a bluish rump and uppertail coverts. The belly is golden green with rufous fringes to the feathers and a turquoise gloss.Fjeldså, J. and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Gorgeted Puffleg (''Eriocnemis isabellae''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gorpuf1.01 retrieved March 12, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The gorgeted puffleg is known only from the

Serranía del Pinche The Serranía del Pinche are part of the Western Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The mountains consist of several high peaks with small patches of isolated páramo and provide a corridor between the Pacific and Andean biogeographic regions. It is ...

in the Western Andes of Colombia's

Department of Cauca Cauca Department (, ) is a department of Southwestern Colombia. Located in the southwestern part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department to the northeast, Huila De ...

. The habitat is characterized by steep slopes of very humid

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, ...

and

elfin forest A "natural National Park in the Philippines, a UNESCO World Heritage Site file:Mount Kemiri (8187817161).jpg, An elfin forest in Sumatra's Gunung Leuser National Park Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem feat ...

with rocky outcrops and natural clearings. The vegetation is dominated by Andean oak (''

Quercus humboldtii ''Quercus humboldtii'', commonly known as the Andean oak, Colombian oak or roble, is a species of oak found only in Colombia and Panama. It is named for Alexander von Humboldt. Description ''Quercus humboldtii'' is an evergreen tree which grows ...

'') with an understory of

Ericaceae The Ericaceae () are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread acros ...

and several other plant families. In elevation this habitat is found mainly between .

Behavior

Movement

The movement pattern of the gorgeted puffleg is not known, but seasonal shifts in elevation are believed possible.

Feeding

The gorgeted puffleg feeds on nectar from flowering shrubs in dense vegetation. It has been recorded feeding at '' Bejaria resinosa'', ''

Cavendishia ''Cavendishia'' is a genus of about 100 species of woody perennial plants, many of which are epiphyte, epiphytic. The genus is native to tropical South America and Central America. Species References Germplasm Resources Information Netwo ...

bracteata'', ''

Cinchona pubescens ''Cinchona pubescens'', also known as red cinchona and quina or kina (; ), is native to Central and South America. It is known as a medicinal plant for its bark's high quinine content- and has similar uses to '' C. officinalis'' in the production ...

'', and ''

Faramea ''Faramea'' is a genus of plants in the family Rubiaceae Rubiaceae () is a family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs tha ...

flavicans''.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the gorgeted puffleg's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

Vocalization

As of early 2022, no recordings of gorgeted puffleg vocalizations were available at

Xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of bird calls and sounds of orthoptera and bats. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound recordings from more th ...

or Cornell University's

Macaulay Library The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal media. It includes more than 71 million photographs, 2.6 million audio recordings, and over three hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an ev ...

. Its song is unknown, but a territorial call is described as "a frequently repeated monosyllabic, sharp 'twek'" that is pitched lower than those of others of its genus.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the gorgeted puffleg as Critically Endangered. It has an extremely small overall range with an even smaller amount of suitable habitat within it. Its population is estimated at between 250 and 999 mature individuals and decreasing. Its habitat is under continuing pressure from illegal

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. Coca leaves contain cocaine which acts as a mild stimulant when chewed or ...

cultivation, though its home mountain range is nominally protected as the Serranía del Pinche Protective Forest Reserve.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1007804 gorgeted puffleg Birds of the Colombian Andes Endemic birds of Colombia Critically endangered animals Critically endangered biota of South America gorgeted puffleg