The purple-backed thornbill (''Ramphomicron microrhynchum'') is a 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 "coquettes", tribe

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

of 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 found in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

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 ...

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 ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and

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 ...

.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 purple-backed thornbill shares its genus with the black-backed thornbill (''R. dorsale''). It has these four subspecies: *''R. m. andicola''

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

(1921) *''R. m. microrhynchum'' Boissonneau (1840) *''R. m. albiventre'' Carriker (1935) *''R. m. bolivianum'' Schuchmann (1984) Subspecies ''R. m. andicola'' and ''R. m. albiventre'' "are doubtfully distinct from henominate."Züchner, T., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Purple-backed Thornbill (''Ramphomicron microrhynchum''), 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.pubtho1.01 retrieved February 23, 2022

Description

The purple-backed thornbill is long and weighs about . Both sexes have a black bill, the shortest of any hummingbird. Males of the nominate subspecies have metallic violet-purple upperparts with a white spot behind the eye. Their

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 ...

is iridescent golden green, the underparts bronzy green, 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 ...

coppery with tawny fringes. The tail is moderately long, forked, and dark purple. Nominate females have shining green upperparts, and like the male, a white spot behind the eye. Their underparts are white with green dots except on the belly. The tail is shorter than the male's and less forked, bronzy purple, and the outer pair of feathers have white tips. Males of subspecies ''R. m. andicola'' have a green-bordered golden gorget and more rufous undertail coverts. ''R. m. albiventre'' is very similar to the nominate, but with lighter margins on the male's undertail coverts and smaller spots on the female's underparts. Males of ''R. m. bolivianum'' have metallic violet upperparts, dark green underparts, and grayish white undertail coverts.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of purple-backed thornbill are found thus: *''R. m. andicola'',

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

of western Venezuela, especially Mérida state *''R. m. microrhynchum'', Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and

Cajamarca Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Per ...

in northwestern Peru *''R. m. albiventre'', Andes' eastern slope in Peru from

Huánuco Huánuco (; ) is a city in central Peru. It had a population of 196,627 as of 2017 and in 2015 it had a population of 175,068. It is the capital of the Huánuco Region and the Huánuco District. It is the seat of the diocese of Huánuco. The met ...

south to Apurímac and

Cuzco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous province and department. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire unti ...

*''R. m. bolivianum'', Andes of Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia The purple-backed thornbill inhabits the edges of humid

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

, ''

Polylepis ''Polylepis'' is a genus comprising 28 recognised shrub and tree species, that are endemic to the mid- and high-elevation regions of the tropical Andes, up to above sea level. It is distributed from Venezuela to Patagonia. In Peru, plants in the ...

'' forest, ''

páramo Páramo () may 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 ...

'', and the transitions between them. ''R. m. bolivianum'' also occurs well below the

treeline The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

in shrubby areas. In elevation the species ranges from .

Behavior

Movement

The purple-backed thornbill moves from lower to higher elevations in the wet season.

Feeding

The purple-backed thornbill forages for nectar from mid-level to the canopy, primarily 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 Animal trapping, trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually ...

. It has often been observed "robbing" nectar from holes in flowers made by '' Diglossa'' flowerpiercers. It has been recorded taking nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants, shrubs, and trees. In addition it feeds on insects caught on the wing and gleaned from flowers.

Breeding

The purple-backed thornbill's breeding season has not been fully defined but appears to span from May possibly to December. It builds a cup nest of fine plant fiber with moss and lichens on the outside on a horizontal branch. The clutch size is two eggs and the incubation period 16 days.

Vocalization

The purple-backed thornbill's song is "a continuous series of quiet scratchy notes interspersed by short buzzes or dry trills." Its calls include "a short dry rattle 'trrr'..., a scratchy 'krr-kit', and a long twittering rattle."

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 purple-backed thornbill as being of Least Concern. It has a large range but its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. It is generally uncommon throughout its range. It occurs in several protected areas but outside of them its habitat is under severe threat of deforestation.

References

External links

Image of purple-backed thornbill - Ramphomicron microrhynchum
{{Taxonbar, from=Q903066 purple-backed thornbill Birds of the Northern Andes purple-backed thornbill Taxonomy articles created by Polbot