HUMMINGBIRDS OF CENTRAL AMERICA

Plain-Capped Starthroat

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Heliomaster Constantii

Plain-capped Starthroat

Adults have a dark, mostly metallic bronze upper plumage (crown, back, and tail) with a white patch on the back and rump (lower back and above the tail). They have greyish-white plumage below and a dark eye-stripe with a white stripe above and below.

Males have a metallic violet-red throat patch that can look dull blackish in poor light conditions.

Females resemble the males but have slightly less colorful plumage.

Juveniles look like the adults but do not have red on their dark gray-brown throat and they have pale feather edgings on their back and head.

BILL: black, long and slender.

SIZE: large-sized, about 4.33 - 4.72 inches in length.

WEIGHT: weighs approximately about 7 - 8 grams.

COLOR: metallic bronze, white, black, gray, gray-brown, red, and violet-red.

Arid to semiarid forest and forest edge, thorn forest, arid scrub, gallery forest, second growth, and in semiopen areas with scattered trees and hedges.

NECTAR from a variety of brightly colored, scented small flowers of trees, herbs, shrubs, and epiphytes.

INSECTS small spiders and insects.

Hovering, while feeding from flowers. Aggressively defends feeding territory from intruders.

Western Mexico (the Sierra Madre Occidentals) to southern Costa Rica (Central America).

NEST: cup-shaped nest out of plant fibers woven together and green moss on the outside for camouflage in a protected location in a shrub, bush or tree.

EGGS: 2 white eggs.

The Plain-Capped Starthroat is also known as Constant's Starthroat or Pine Starthroat.