The green-backed hillstar (''Urochroa leucura''), formerly included in the white-tailed hillstar, 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 found in

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 ...

, and

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 green-backed hillstar and what is now the

rufous-gaped hillstar The rufous-gaped hillstar (''Urochroa bougueri''), formerly included in the white-tailed hillstar, is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador. Taxonomy The ruf ...

(''Urochroa bougueri'') were once treated as a single species, the "white-tailed hillstar". (

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

retains the "white-tailed" name for the present species.) They are the only two members of their genus. Although they share the name "hillstar" with the members of genus '' Oreotrochilus'', they are quite different and not closely related. The green-backed hillstar 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 ...

.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, 2022del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Green-backed Hillstar (''Urochroa leucura''), 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.whthil3.01 retrieved 5 May 2022

Description

The green-backed hillstar is long including its approximately bill. It weighs about . The sexes are alike, though the female is somewhate duller than the male. They have bronzy green upperparts with bronzy uppertail

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 ...

, an iridescent blue throat and breast, and a dull gray belly. Their central tail feathers are bronzy and the others white with dusky gray outer edges. Juveniles are similar to adults with the addition of buffy fringes on the head feathers and a slight buffy malar streak.

Distribution and habitat

The green-backed hillstar is found on the east slope of the Andes from southern Colombia through eastern Ecuador and disjunctly in northeastern Peru. It inhabits the interior and edges of mature

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 ...

and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

, and also shrubby slopes, and is often found near streams. In Colombia and Ecuador it generally ranges between elevations of , and is most numerous at about . In Peru it is known only between .

Behavior

Movement

Though the green-backed hillstar is generally sedentary, it makes some seasonal elevational movements.

Feeding

The green-backed hillstar usually forages in the lower and middle strata of the forest but occasionally in the canopy. Males defend feeding territories at stands of flowering vegetation. It takes nectar mostly from plants of genera ''Inga'', ''Bomarea'', ''Psammisia'', and ''Cavendishia''. In addition to feeding on nectar it captures small insects by hawking from a perch.

Breeding

The green-backed hillstar'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

What is thought to be the green-backed hillstar's song is "a continuous series of single 'tseee', 'tsing' or 'seeuw' notes". It also makes "a liquid 'twit', repeated in long sequences.

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 green-backed hillstar as being of Least Concern, though its population size and trend are unknown. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered fairly common in Colombia, uncommon to rare in Ecuador, and rare and local in Peru.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q31873827

green-backed hillstar The green-backed hillstar (''Urochroa leucura''), formerly included in the white-tailed hillstar, is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.HBW and Bird ...

Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes