HUMMINGBIRD SPECIES

Antillean Crested Hummingbird

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Orthorhyncus cristatus

The Antillean Crested Hummingbird is a tiny, perky and inquisitive hummingbird species with a small geographic range in the Caribbean, from eastern Puerto Rico through much of the Lesser Antilles. It is easily identified in its range by their small size and obvious crest.

Males are bright and colorful while females are more tannish and dull. The males have short straight black bills; heads with green crest, tipped metallic green to bright blue-green, upperparts dull metallic bronze-green; underparts are sooty black; tails are black, rounded.

The female’s bill is similar to male’s but its head is without a crest; forehead, crown and upperparts are metallic bronzy-green; underparts light gray; tail blackish, rounded, four outer rectrices broadly tipped whitish gray.

Calls include short "tsip" or "tzip" notes and a longer series of “tslee-tslee-tslee-tslee”.

Feeds on both nectar and small insects.

Subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, semiarid forest and heavily degraded former forest such as open vegetation, parks, plantations, forest borders from sea-level to high mountains.

Found across Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, north-east Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Eustatius, the British Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, while it has also been recorded as a vagrant in Florida, USA.

The nest is a small cup built of plant fibers and decorated with bits of moss, lichen, and other material, built within 3 - 10 feet off the ground in a shrub, vine, or other protected area.

The female usually lays 2 eggs, and she alone incubates them. She alone feeds the young once they hatch. The young fledge after about 3 weeks.

SOURCES:
https://www.sdakotabirds.com
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://ebird.org