HUMMINGBIRD SPECIES

Gould's Jewelfront

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Heliodoxa aurescens

The Gould's Jewelfront is a medium-sized hummingbird in the family Trochilidae.

Its size ranges from 4.33 – 4.72 inches with and average weight of about 6.2 grams.

Both sexes have a narrow frontlet of glittering purplish-blue which is underdeveloped in immature birds.

Bill is black to dark colored and is “unspecialised” for being relatively short and straight. Irises are brown and tarsus black.

Tail is forked with the central pair of feathers bronze-green while the other tail feathers have chestnut edges and bronze-green tips. Undertail coverts are a deep fawn color and wings are purplish- brown.

Males have shining grass green upperparts with the sides of the neck and lower throat glittering golden green bordered by a distinctive orange/rufous breast band. Chin, lores and upper throat are velvety black while the rest of the underparts are shining green.

Females appear generally similar to the males but are somewhat duller. They have a green crown. Their bill is slightly larger than the males. Chin feathers have buff tips and the throat is grayish with green discs. They also feature a malar stripe (from the base of the bill towards the neck) which is buff to chestnut colored.

Primarily nectarivous supplementing the diet with small arthropods hawked from the air. Occasionally visits feeders.

Found in the understorey of lowland humid tropical forests, particularly near streams, and only rarely at forest edges.

South America: found from eastern Colombia to northern Bolivia, southern Venezuela and western Amazonian Brazil.

A clutch of two eggs incubated by the female.

SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://www.birdforum.net