Return of Bird of the Week: Fawn-breasted Brilliant
Another clade of hummingbirds that aren’t called “hummingbirds” are the Brilliants, which you will likely agree is a terrific name for a kind of hummingbird. One of the nine or so species of Brilliants is the Fawn-breasted Brilliant.
Fawn-breasted Brilliant Male, West Slope of the Andes, Ecuador
The Fawn-breasted Brilliant is a medium-large humming bird, averaging 11.2 centimeters (4.4 inches) in length, with a stout, slightly decurved bill. Both sexes have chests that are decorated with delicate green scalloping against a fawn-colored background. The female’s coloration is less vivid than the male’s. And the female lacks the male’s brilliant pink iridescence on his throat.
Fawn-breasted Brilliant Female, West Slope of the Andes, Ecuador
This is a mountain bird, ranging from about 3,300 feet to perhaps 6,000 feet in cloud forests. While it will come to forest edges, it prefers denser forest, foraging in the lower and middle portions of the jungle.
There are three subspecies, distributed across the mountains of Columbia, Ecuador and Peru. It isn’t common anywhere; in a combined four trips to Ecuador and Peru, WC has photographed exactly five birds. But WC isn’t complaining. This is the species that gave WC a full display of its tongue, which resulted in a very popular series.
Fawn-breasted Brilliant Male showing his tongue, West Slope of the Andes, Ecuador
That amazing tongue allows hummingbirds to get nectar from deep in the big-blossomed flowers of the jungle.
This is another Neotropic bird species whose natural history is basically unknown. As Birds of the World puts it, “Its natural history is very poorly known.” Ornithologists have found exactly one (1) nest for this species. But based upon Breeding Bird Surveys and the fairly extensive range, this species is not believed to be threatened with extinction.
For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.