HUMMINGBIRD SPECIES

Black-throated Mango

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Anthracothorax nigricollis

The Black-throated Mango is an attractive South American hummingbird species.

They are about 4.33 - 4.72 inches long. Males weigh about 6 - 7 grams and females about 7.3 grams.

Adult males have glossy bronze-green upperparts. Flight feathers are brownish-green. Tail shows bronze-green central feathers, chestnut and purple outer tail feathers, glossed purple.

Center of breast and belly is black, bordered with glossy blue on throat and breast sides. Body sides and flanks are glossy bronze-green.

Head is bronze-green on forehead, crown and nape. Chin is black, bordered by glossy blue malar stripe. The black bill is slightly down curved. Eyes are dark brown. Legs and feet are blackish.

Females have similar upperparts. They have a black central stripe, from chin, through throat and breast, to belly. This black stripe is widely bordered with white on the sides.

Tail shows bronze-green central tail feathers, with black tips. Outer rectrices are deep chestnut, with purplish subterminal band, and narrow white tips.

Immatures resemble females, with brown edges on head and back, and irregular brown patches on throat and breast sides.

CALL: Utters sharp, high-pitched “tsick” or “tiuck”.

SONG: A series of seven buzzing notes “hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl”.

Feeds mainly on nectar from flowers of tall trees such as Erythrina, Tabebuia and Spathodea.

It also feeds at vines, shrubs and flowering bushes. It also consumes insects caught in flight high above treetops.

Lives in forest edges, clearing with bushes and scattered trees, open country, cultivated areas in mountain slopes and gardens.

It is usually seen fairly close to water in tropical areas, up to 1000 meters of elevation.

Lives from Panama, southwards to north- eastern Bolivia, the Guianas, southern Brazil and northern Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago.

The female builds a tiny, cup-shaped nest with fine vegetal materials such as seed down, with outside decoration of lichens and moss, dead leaves and rootlets.

She usually lays 2 white eggs and incubates them for about 16 - 18 days.

SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com