The reddish hermit (''Phaethornis ruber'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Trochilidae 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 ...

, the

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 ...

s. 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 ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and the

Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British Guiana, British, Surinam (Dutch colo ...

Taxonomy and systematics

In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included a picture and a description of the reddish hermit in his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "The little brown huming-bird". Edwards based his etching on a specimen owned by the

Duke of Richmond Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families. The current dukedom of Richmond was created in 1675 for Charles ...

that had been collected in

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

updated his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' for the

tenth edition Tenth may refer to: Numbers * 10th, the ordinal form of the number ten * One tenth, , or 0.1, a fraction, one part of a unit divided equally into ten parts. ** the SI prefix deci- ** tithe, a one-tenth part of something * 1/10 of any unit of me ...

, he placed the reddish hermit with the

s in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Trochilus The streamertails are hummingbirds in the genus ''Trochilus'' that are endemic to Jamaica. It is the type genus of the family Trochilidae. Today, most authorities consider the two taxa in this genus as separate species, but some (e.g. AOU) conti ...

''. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Trochilus ruber'', and cited Edwards' work. The specific epithet ''ruber'' is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word meaning "red". The type locality is Suriname. The reddish hermit is now placed in the

Phaethornis '' Phaethornis '' is a genus of hummingbirds in the hermit (hummingbird), hermit subfamily, Phaethornithinae. They occur from southern Mexico, through Central America, to South America as far south as northern Argentina. Description and ecology ...

'' that was introduced in 1827 by

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

. The reddish hermit has sometimes been considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with the white-browed hermit (''P. stuarti'').Hinkelmann, C., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Reddish Hermit (''Phaethornis ruber''), 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.redher1.01 retrieved November 28, 2021 Four

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised: * ''P. r. episcopus''

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, an ...

, 1857 * ''P. r. ruber'' (Linnaeus, 1758) * ''P. r. nigricinctus''

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, 1858 * ''P. r. longipennis'' Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1902 Some

introgression Introgression, also known as introgressive hybridization, in genetics is the transfer of genetic material from one species into the gene pool of another by the repeated backcrossing of an interspecific hybrid with one of its parent species. Introg ...

has been noted between the nominate ''P. r. ruber'' and ''P. r. longipennis''. ''P. r. episcopus'' and ''P. r. nigricinctus'' might actually be separate species but data to confirm the hypothesis are lacking. The population of ''P. r. ruber'' in southeastern Brazil has been proposed as a separate subspecies ''P. r. pygmaeus'' but its apparent differences are within the range of variation in the rest of ''ruber''.

Description

The reddish hermit is long and weighs . All subspecies are generally dark green and rufous on the upperparts and cinnamon rufous on the underparts. Males have a black band on the chest and the tail feather have narrow white or reddish tips. Females have lighter underparts than the males. ''P. r. episcopus'' is about the same size as the nominate but has orange-rufous rather than cinnamon-rufous underparts and white tips to the tail. ''P. r. nigricinctus'' is the smallest subspecies; it has the richest rufous underparts. ''P. r. longipennis'' is the largest subspecies. It has a whitish chin and its central tail feathers have rufous tips.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of reddish hermit are distributed thus: * ''P. r. episcopus'', central and eastern Venezuela, Guyana, and northwestern Brazil's

Roraima Roraima ( ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil. Located in the country's North Region, it is the northernmost and most geographically and logistically isolated state in Brazil. It is bordered by the state of Pará to the southeast, Amazonas t ...

state * ''P. r. ruber'', Suriname and French Guiana through Brazil as far south as northern

Paraná Paraná, Paranã or Parana may refer to: Geology * Paraná Basin, a sedimentary basin in South America Places In Argentina *Paraná, Entre Ríos, a city * Paraná Department, a part of Entre Ríos Province In Brazil *Paraná (state), a state ...

state and in the west to southeastern Peru and northern Bolivia. * ''P. r. nigricinctus'', eastern and southern Colombia and extreme southwestern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador into northeastern Peru and northwestern Brazil. * ''P. r. longipennis'', southeastern Peru from the

department of Pasco Pasco () is a department and region in central Peru. Its capital is Cerro de Pasco. Political division The region is divided into 3 provinces (, singular: ), which are composed of 28 districts (''distritos'', singular: ''distrito''). Provin ...

to northern

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 ...

Behavior

Movement

The reddish hermit is assumed to be sedentary.

Feeding

The reddish hermit is a " trap-line" feeder like other hermit hummingbirds, visiting a circuit of many species of flowering plants for nectar. It also consumes 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 ...

Nectar robbing Nectar robbing is a foraging behavior used by some organisms that feed on floral nectar, carried out by feeding from holes bitten in flowers, rather than by entering through the flowers' natural openings. Nectar robbers usually feed in this way, ...

by piercing the base of a flower has been regularly observed in southeastern Brazil.

Breeding

The reddish hermit's breeding seasons vary throughout its large range; in general in the north it is within May to October and in the south within October to February. The nest is a cone-shaped cup made of plant fibers, mosses, lichens, other plant material, and spider web. It is attached under a drooping leaf. The clutch size is two eggs and the female alone incubates them.

Vocalization

The reddish hermit's song is "a high-pitched phrase repeated incessantly with clear pauses between phrases...evenly-spaced, slightly descending, single notes followed by a number of accelerating descending notes, e.g. 'tsee....tsee...tsee...tsee.tse.tsitsi'." It frequently sings for long periods at

leks Lek or LEK may refer to: * Lek mating, of animals * Albanian lek, currency * Lek (magazine), Norway * Lek (pharmaceutical company), now part of Sandoz * Lek (river), Netherlands * De Lek, Netherlands fiefdom * L.E.K. Consulting, firm * Leung ...

. It has "long whining calls" made while hovering and a "stip!" flight call.

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 reddish hermit as being of Least Concern, though its population size is unknown and is believed to be decreasing. It has a very large range, is considered "locally common to abundant", and occurs in several protected areas.

References

External links

* (with RangeMap)
Reddish Hermit photo gallery
VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q1267401 reddish hermit Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of Brazil Birds of the Guiana Shield Hummingbird species of South America reddish hermit reddish hermit Taxonomy articles created by Polbot