Tag Archives: birdwatching in colombia

This bird is around 23cm. It has unmistakable characteristics. Above its beak it is black and below it is orange. Its eyes are red and it has a rather long tail. It is deep black in color with white cheeks, white pectoral tufts and broad white tips on its outer rectrices. It has inner margins of white inner rectrices that are prominent in flight.

Own of Central America and the extreme northwest of South America. This Nuthatch is the only one with densely ridged tops and bottoms. Its name Xiphorhynchus comes from the Greek roots xiphos = sword and rhunkhos = beak. The epithet lachrymosus comes from Latin and means full of tears.

The giant hummingbird (Patagona gigas) is the only member of the genus Patagona and the largest member of the hummingbird family, weighing 18–24 g (0.63–0.85 oz) and having a wingspan of approximately 21.5 cm (8.5 in) and length of 23 cm (9.1 in). This is approximately the same length as a European starling or a northern cardinal, though the giant hummingbird is considerably lighter because it has a slender build and long bill, making the body a smaller proportion of the total length. This weight is almost twice that of the next heaviest hummingbird species, and ten times that of the smallest, the bee hummingbird.

This species is quite gregarious and noisy and is found in the western lowlands of the country. Its name Mitrospingus means crown finch, referring to the coloration of the latter and derives from the Greek roots mitra = crown or hood and spingos = finch. His epithet cassinii was established in honor of the North American ornithologist John Cassin.

The steely-vented hummingbird (Amazilia saucerottei) is a medium-sized hummingbird that is a resident breeder from western Nicaragua to Costa Rica, and also in Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. The Central American birds differ in voice and behaviour from those in South America and may be a separate species, the blue-vented hummingbird (A. hoffmanni, syn. A. sophiae). Both forms are sometimes placed in the genus Saucerottia, but this is not recognized by most authorities, notably AOU and Howard & Moore.