The rufous-webbed brilliant (''Heliodoxa branickii'') 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 "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 Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

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 ...

.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 rufous-webbed brilliant was at one time treated as the sole member of genus ''Lampraster'', which in the mid 20th century was merged into the present genus ''Heliodoxa''.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 It 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 rufous-webbed brilliant is long. Males weigh about on average and females . The species' English name comes from its cinnamon-rufous inner wing feathers; the rest of the wing is dusky. Both sexes have a black bill whose

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

base is paler. Males are mostly shining dark green. Their forehead is brighter glittering green and they have an iridescent rosy

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 ...

. 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 bright white. The central pair of tail feathers are green and the rest dark blue. Females also have shining dark green upperparts, flanks, and breast. They have a short white streak from the bill to below the eye. The throat and breast are white, with shining green tips to the feathers, and the belly is white to buffy. A gorget is often lacking, and when present is paler and yellower than the male's. The undertail coverts are bright white like the male's, but the blue outer tail feathers have white tips.Schulenberg, T. S. and C. W. Sedgwick (2020). Rufous-webbed Brilliant (''Heliodoxa branickii''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ruwbri1.01 retrieved 6 May 2022

Distribution and habitat

The rufous-webbed brilliant has been conclusively recorded only on the east slope of the Andes from central to southern Peru. There are also unconfirmed records in Bolivia.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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved February 1, 2022 It inhabits the interior and 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 ...

at elevations between .

Behavior

Movement

The rufous-webbed brilliant's movements, if any, have not been documented.

Feeding

The rufous-webbed brilliant primarily forages for nectar in the forest's understory and its edges, though the species of flowering plants it feeds at are only slightly known. It also eats small insects.

Breeding

The rufous-webbed brilliant'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 ...

has not been documented.

Vocalization

The rufous-webbed brilliant's song is "a series of ''chew'' notes interspersed with a short, rapid, descending trill." Its call is "a sweet, descending ''tew''".

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 rufous-webbed brilliant as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, but its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. No specific threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to fairly common in Peru. It "shows some tolerance of

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological proces ...

, degradation and disturbance; however, outright forest clearance is expected to cause local population declines."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1264380 rufous-webbed brilliant Birds of the Peruvian Andes rufous-webbed brilliant Taxonomy articles created by Polbot