The buff-winged starfrontlet (''Coeligena lutetiae'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

in the "brilliants", tribe

Heliantheini Heliantheini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae of the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe in the subfamily is Lesbiini. The informal name "brilliants" has been proposed for this group as it includes the ge ...

in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

.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 buff-winged starfrontlet and most other members of genus ''Coeligena'' were at one time placed in genus ''Helianthea'' but have been in their current placement since the mid-1900s.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 31 January 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved February 1, 2022 The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC) and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

(HBW) recognize two subspecies, the nominate ''C. l. lutetiae'' and ''C. l. albimaculata''. However, the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

treats the species as

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 "unispec ...

.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

Description

The buff-winged starfrontlet is about long. Males weigh and females about . Both sexes have a long, black, slightly upturned bill and a white spot behind the eye. Both sexes have a forked tail though the female's is not as deeply indented as the male's. Males of the nominate subspecies has velvety black upperparts with a glittering green forehead. They have a violet

gorget A gorget , from the French ' meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the thro ...

and the rest of the underparts are dark green. The wings are dark with a large cinnamon-buff patch and the tail is bronzy black. Nominate females have shining dark green upperparts. Their throat is cinnamon-buff and the rest of the underparts golden green with pale fringes on the feathers. They have the same cinnamon-buff wing patch as the males but the tail is bronzy green.Züchner, T., P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Buff-winged Starfrontlet (''Coeligena lutetiae''), 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.buwsta1.01 retrieved 2 May 2022 Males of subspecies ''C. l. albimaculata'' have almost white wing patches but are otherwise like the nominate. Females have a paler throat than the nominate and a cinnamon tinge to the underparts, whose golden green is also less iridescent.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of buff-winged starfrontlet is found from the Central Andes of Colombia south through the Andes of Ecuador into far northern Peru. ''C. l. albimaculata'' is found only in northwestern Ecuador. The species inhabits

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

elfin forest Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem featuring miniature trees, inhabited by small species of fauna such as rodents and lizards. They are usually located at high elevations, under conditions of sufficient air humi ...

, and the lower edges of ''

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

''. In elevation it ranges from but is most common around .

Behavior

Movement

The buff-winged starfrontlet is generally sedentary, though some movement to follow flowering plants has been noted.

Feeding

The buff-winged starfrontlet feeds on nectar by

trap-lining In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually seen in species ...

, visiting a circuit of flowering plants, but it also will defend patches of flowers. It most often forages at low levels at the margins of forest, and often clings to flowers to feed as well as hovering. In addition to feeding on nectar it captures small

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s by gleaning from foliage and by

hawking Hawking may refer to: People * Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist *Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name) Film * ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Haw ...

Breeding

The buff-winged starfrontlet's breeding season in Colombia is August and September; it is not defined elsewhere. It builds a cup nest in a branch fork, typically about above ground. The female incubates the clutch of two eggs for 15 to 17 days; the time to fledging has not been determined.

Vocalization

The buff-winged starfrontlet makes a "thin, wiry chatter with rattles", often during territorial disputes. While feeding it often repeats "a characteristic, nasal 'unk'".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the buff-winged starfrontlet as being of Least Concern, though its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. Though it has a fairly large overall range, its habitat is patchy, fragmented, and under continuing threat of deforestation. It is not thought likely to accept human-made habitats like gardens.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q898544 buff-winged starfrontlet Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes buff-winged starfrontlet buff-winged starfrontlet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot