Purple-throated Carib - BirdForum Opus

Eulampis jugularis

Photo by rbroadwell;
Dominica

Identification

11.5 cm. The adult is overall black, with purple throat/upper breast. The wings are emerald green, and both uppertail and undertail coverts are blue. Wings are about as long or longer than the tail when sitting. Both legs and bill are dark, with the bill strongly decurved.

Sexual dimorphism: the male has a bill that is shorter but more strongly curved than the female (30 % difference in length). He is also 25 % heavier than the female.

Distribution

This monotypic species is found throughout the Lesser Antilles with the exception of Barbados,Barbuda, and St. Martin.

Taxonomy

Monotypic

Habitat

Forested habitats and certain forms of cultivation, for example small scale banana plantations.

Ecology: There is a very interesting paper on co-adaptations in this species with heliconia plants in St Lucia and Dominica: Temeles EJ, Kress WJ. Adaptation in a plant-hummingbird association. Science. 2003 Apr 25;300(5619):630-3.

Behaviour

There was a discussion of threat display in hummingbirds started with a picture of this species in http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=58374

External Links

Search for photos of Purple-throated Carib in the gallery

• The Purple-throated Carib was the bird of the month of the Society for Conservation and study of Caribbean Birds recently; this is a relatively complete presentation of the species.