The volcano hummingbird (''Selasphorus flammula'') is a species of

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 tribe Mellisugini of subfamily Trochilinae, the "bee hummingbirds". It is found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and Panama.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. Volcano Hummingbird RWD9

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 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 * Turrialba (district), located in Turrialba canton. Other * Turrialba cheese ...

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 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 () 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 ...

, second growth on landslide scars or ashfall areas, scrubby pastures, and the edges of elfin forest 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 arthropods taken on the wing or, for the female especially, by gleaning from foliage or picking from spider webs.

Breeding

The volcano hummingbird's breeding season spans from August or September to February. The male defends small territories that are independent of nectar resources though flowers are usually nearby, and makes dive displays directed at females. The female makes a cup nest of plant down and spider web covered with moss and lichens. It is placed at the outermost end of a twig, usually between above the ground. Nests are sometimes also attached to a rootly drooping from a projecting earth bank such as by a road. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.

Vocal and non-vocal sounds

The volcano hummingbird makes "soft chip notes" while foraging. Males make "a thin whistled 'teeeeeuu'" whose purpose is not noted and "a twittering 'scolding'" call during

agonistic An agonist is a chemical that activates a receptor to produce a biological response. Receptors are cellular proteins whose activation causes the cell to modify what it is currently doing. In contrast, an antagonist blocks the action of the agoni ...

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; 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 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 Birds of the Talamancan montane forests Hummingbird species of Central America volcano hummingbird volcano hummingbird Páramo fauna