From Opus

Photo by UncleGus_24
Madera Canyon, Arizona June 2009

Amazilia beryllina

Saucerottia beryllina

[edit] Identification

Male

• Emerald green
• Purple rump
• Some purple wing and tail feathers
• Bright green gorget
• Black bill (lower mandible has red base)
• Undertail coverts cinnamon-brown
  

Female: duller with pale grey belly and undertail coverts.

[edit] Distribution

Resident year round in Mexico to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and a rare summer visitor to southeast Arizona and New Mexico.

[edit] Taxonomy

Five subspecies are recognized^[1]: berrylina and viola (berrylina group) west and north of the Mexican isthmus, lichtensteini, sumichrasti, and devillei (devillei group) east and south of isthmus. These two groups are reportedly quite different and deserve further study to determine if they are full species according to Howell and Webb^[2].

[edit] Habitat

Foothills and highlands, oak and pine woodlands and edges, oak scrub and clearings, plantations.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

It builds a nest of plant fibres and spider webs, covered with lichens, in a tree or shrub. The 2 white eggs are incubated by the female for about 14 days.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes nectar and insects.

[edit] Vocalisation

A series of hoarse, high twitters sirr, kirr-I-rr, kirr-I-rr; also a buzzing drrzzzzt.

[edit] References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
2. Howell & Webb, 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198540124
3. Hummingbirds.net
4. Whatbird

• List of references

[edit] External Links