Purple-Bibbed Whitetip

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Urosticte Benjamini

The Purple-Bibbed Whitetip is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae.

BILL: Medium-length straight black bill.

SIZE: 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) long.

WEIGHT: 3.8 to 4.2 g (0.13 to 0.15 oz).

COLOR: Glittering green, violet, white, gray, dusky bronze and purple.

Both sexes have glittering green upperparts and a prominent white stripe behind the eye.

Males have a violet lower throat white below it and a grayish belly with green spots. Tail is dusky bronze; central feathers have wide white tips that appear as an oval spot.

Females have white underparts heavily spotted with green. Tail is dusky bronze with purple near the end and white tips on the outer feathers.

Juveniles are similar to females with the addition of brown edges on the head feathers.

Collects nectar from a variety of flowering plants including bromeliads and members of families Ericaceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae. It also captures insects by gleaning from vegetation and hawking from a perch.

Makes a "mellow, nasal-sounding fast twittering 'tweetweetweetwee...'" that can sound like "a laughing chatter". While feeding in flight it also makes "single lower-pitched scratchy notes, 'chrrrrr'". Another call is a "very high-pitched 'pseee'."

Inhabits the interior and edges of montane forest, generally at elevations between 700 and 1,600 m (2,300 and 5,200 ft). In Ecuador it is most numerous between 1,200 and 1,400 m (3,900 and 4,600 ft).