Return of the Bird of the Week: Black-tailed Trainbearer

Here’s a hummingbird species whose tail is even longer than its name. The tail of a Black-tailed Trainbearer – a pretty cool name for this species – is half again as long as its body. Perhaps to compensate, it has one of the shortest bills of the hummingbirds. The species favors open areas, gardens and parks. At higher altitudes, in the paramò, it can be fairly common. WC has seen the species in downtown Quito. Like many hummingbirds, it is surprisingly cryptic for all of the flash and color. The species is unusual in that it has three distinct, discontiguous…