The volcano hummingbird (''Selasphorus flammula'') 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 tribe

Mellisugini Mellisugini is one of the three Tribe (biology), tribes that make up the subfamily Trochilinae in the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The other two tribes in the subfamily are Lampornithini (mountain gems) and Trochilini (emeral ...

of subfamily

Trochilinae Trochilinae is one of the six subfamily, subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into three Tribe (biology), tribes: Lampornithini (mountain gems) containing 18 species, Mellisugini ...

, the "bee hummingbirds". It is found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

.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 This hummingbird is the one that appears on the 20 thousand colones bill from Costa Rica.

Taxonomy and systematics

The volcano hummingbird has three subspecies, the nominate ''S. f. flammula'', ''S. f. torridus'', and ''S. f. simoni''. All three have at times been treated as color morphs rather than subspecies and at other times as individual species.Stiles, F.G. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Volcano Hummingbird (''Selasphorus flammula''), 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.volhum1.01 retrieved July 28, 2022.

Description

The volcano hummingbird is long. Males weigh about and females . Both sexes of all subspecies have a short, straight, black bill and a small white spot behind the eye. The adult male of the nominate subspecies has bronze-green upperparts and rufous-edged black outer tail feathers. Its

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 mauve-purple and the rest of the underparts mostly white. The sides of the breast have a buffy to pale cinnamon wash and green speckles. The adult female is also bronze-green above. Its central tail feathers are green and the rest have rufous bases, a black band near the end, and buffy to white tips. The throat is whitish with dusky bronze speckles and the rest of the underparts are like the male's. Juveniles are similar to the adult female but have buffy fringes on the upperparts' feathers. Both sexes of subspecies ''S. f. torridus'' are whiter below than the nominate, and males have a purplish-gray gorget. Both sexes of ''S. f. simoni'' are buffier below than the nominate and have more black on the tail. The male's gorget is rose red.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of volcano hummingbird is found on Volcanoes Irazú and

Turrialba Turrialba may refer to: Places * Turrialba Volcano * Turrialba Volcano National Park, created around Turrialba Volcano. * Turrialba (canton), located in Cartago Province Cartago (), which means Carthage in Spanish, is a Provinces of Costa Ri ...

in central Costa Rica. Subspecies ''S. f. torridus'' is found on the

Cordillera de Talamanca The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two ...

of southern Costa Rica and on

Volcán Barú The Volcán Barú (also Volcán de Chiriquí) is an active stratovolcano and the tallest mountain in Panama, at high. It lies about off the border of Costa Rica. It is also the twelfth highest peak in Central America. Due to its height and the ...

in extreme western Panama. ''S. f. simoni'' is found on Volcanes Poás and Barva (or Barba) in central Costa Rica. The species inhabits a variety of semi-open to open habitats on high mountain slopes. Examples include

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 ...

, second growth on landslide scars or ashfall areas, scrubby pastures, and the edges of

elfin forest A "natural National Park in the Philippines, a UNESCO World Heritage Site file:Mount Kemiri (8187817161).jpg, An elfin forest in Sumatra's Gunung Leuser National Park Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem feat ...

and taller forest. It is found mostly between elevations of but occurs locally down to and seasonally as low as .

Behavior

Movement

The volcano hummingbird breeds at the higher elevations of its range, and after breeding some descend much lower and may even move to an adjacent mountain. The latter allows some mixing of the subspecies.

Feeding

The volcano hummingbird forages for nectar at a wide variety of flowers, mostly small ones on shrubs, vines, herbs, and small trees. It also feeds from larger flowers that bees or flowerpiercers (''Diglossa'') have made holes in. Males commonly defend clusters of flowers and females do so less frequently. In addition to nectar the species feeds 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 taken on the wing or, for the female especially, by gleaning from foliage or picking from spider webs. File:Volcano hummingbird (Selasphorus flammula) female in flight 1.jpg, Female in

File:Volcano hummingbird (Selasphorus flammula) female in flight 3.jpg, Feeding on ''

Abutilon ''Abutilon'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropicsagonistic encounters with other males. During the dive display the male's tail feathers make a series of broad-frequency pulses.

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 volcano hummingbird as being of Least Concern. It has a fairly large range and an apparently stable population between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals. All three subspecies occur in protected areas, and outside them they might benefit from human activity as they are more abundant in open areas than forest.

References

External links

Volcano hummingbird photo
{{Taxonbar, from=Q910801 volcano hummingbird Endemic birds of the Talamancan montane forests Hummingbird species of Central America volcano hummingbird volcano hummingbird Páramo fauna