The band-tailed barbthroat (''Threnetes ruckeri'') is a medium-sized

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 ...

that is found from southeastern

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

to western

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and western

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The band-tailed barbthroat has the three subspecies listed. A fourth proposed subspecies, ''T. r. darienensis'' of the Panama-Colombia border area, shares the characteristics of all three recognized subspecies. The band-tailed barbthroat and the other two members of its genus pale-tailed barbthroat (''T. lecurus'') and sooty barbthroat (''T. niger'') 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 ...

.Hinkelmann, C. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Band-tailed Barbthroat (''Threnetes ruckeri''), 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.batbar1.01 retrieved 15 November 2021

Description

The band-tailed barbthroat is long. Males weigh and females .The adult male of the nominate subspecies has bronze-green upperparts, a dark ear patch and chin, and a dusky malar stripe. The tail is dark with white bases and tips to the feathers that create a black band near the end. The throat is ochraceous and the underparts are otherwise gray with some green feathers. It has a nearly straight bill. As with other

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

hummingbirds, the sexes are similar; the female's bill is somewhat more decurved than the male's and the plumage has less contrast among the throat, breast, and belly. Young birds resemble the adult but have ochraceous feather edges. ''T. r. venezuelensis'' has a somewhat larger ochraceous throat patch than the nominate. ''T. r. ventosus'' has a much larger and bright orange throat patch and an ochraceous tinge to the belly.

Distribution and habitat

''T. r. ventosus'' is the northernmost subspecies of band-tailed barbthroat. It is found from eastern Guatemala and Belize through Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica into Panama. The nominate ''T. r. ruckeri'' is found from northern and western Colombia south through western Ecuador almost to Peru. ''T. r. venezuelensis'' is found in northwestern Venezuela. The species inhabits the understory and edges of

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

and old second growth, and also semi-open shrublands, thickets, and plantations. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Movement

The band-tailed barbthroat is presumed to be sedentary. However, some movement has been noted after the breeding season, especially among young birds.

Feeding

Like other hermit hummingbirds, the band-tailed barbthroat is a " trap-line" feeder, visiting a circuit of flowering plants. It feeds on nectar at ''

Heliconia ''Heliconia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku (province), ...

'' and other tubular flowers and also on small

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s, especially spiders. In addition to probing flowers for nectar, it also "robs" by piercing the base of the tube.

Breeding

The band-tailed barbthroat's nesting season varies widely across its range. Its nest is a cup of plant and other fibers and cobweb attached to the underside tip of a long drooping leaf. The female alone incubates the two white eggs, though males have been observed remaining in the nest's vicinity.

Vocalization

The band-tailed barbthroat's song is "a fast high-pitched phrase of some 5–10 notes repeated with intervals of several seconds...e.g. 'tzi-tzi-tsee-ee-tsi-tzi-tzi'." In Costa Rica the Pacific slope population has a more complex song than that of the Caribbean slope birds; it includes trills.

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 band-tailed barbthroat as being of Least Concern, although its population has not been enumerated and its trend is not known. It appears to be generally common and occurs is several protected areas.