HUMMINGBIRDS OF CENTRAL AMERICA

Little Hermit

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Phaethornis Longuemareus

Adults have generally bronzy coppery green or olive-green upperparts, contrasting pale rufous rump and uppertail.

Dusky or blackish, bordered above and below with buff or whitish postocular and narrower lateral throat stripes.

Dusky or speckled with dusky center of throat, cinnamon buff underparts and white undertail coverts. The male's throat is slightly darker than the female's.

BILL: black, long and slightly down-curved; the upper beak is black and the lower is yellow with a black tip.

SIZE: among the smallest hummingbirds with a total length of 3½ - 4 inches including its beak and tail.

WEIGHT:  weighs 2½-3½ grams.

COLOR: olive-green, orange, cinnamon, grey, brown, white.

Occurs in the understory of humid evergreen lowland forest; it especially favors forest borders and openings with flowering Heliconia.

NECTAR from a variety of seasonal, brightly colored, scented, large flowers of trees, shrubs, and epiphytes - with their favorite feeding plant being the broad-leafed Heliconia plant.

INSECTS small insects and spiders.

NEST: cone-shaped nest that hangs by a single strong string of spider's silk and/or rootlets from an overhead support such as a branch or underside of broad leaves, like Heliconia plants, banana plants, banana trees of ferns that is 1 to 2 meters above ground.

EGGS: 1 to 3 white eggs (average 2).

INCUBATION: 14-16 days, female only. 14-16 days, female only.

Hovering, sometimes hanging while feeding from flowers.

Northeastern South America, from Northeastern Venezuela and Trinidad to east to French Guiana, and in adjacent far Northern Brazil.

The Little Hermit is also known as Longuemare's Hermit.

REFERENCES:  https://www.beautyofbirds.com/

                          https://en.wikipedia.org/

                          https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/