Rufous-breasted Hermit
Encyclopedia
The Rufous-breasted Hermit or Hairy Hermit (Glaucis hirsutus) is a hummingbird
that breeds from Panama
south to Bolivia
, and on Trinidad
, Tobago
and Grenada
. It is a widespread and generally common species, though local populations may change in numbers and disappear altogether in marginal habitat
Immature males are somewhat more distinct, resembling a barbthroat (Threnetes). They were once described as a distinct species, the "Black Barbthroat" ("T. grzimeki"). Similarly, the proposed subspecies
abrawayae is apparently based on individual variation occurring in adults and not taxonomically distinct either.
The call of this species is a high-pitched sweet.
inhabits forest undergrowth, often near running water. The Rufous-breasted Hermit's food is nectar, taken from a variety of understory
flowers, and some small invertebrate
s.
G. hirsuta has very discriminating feeding habits. It will only visit flowers whole corollar length and curvature precisely matches that of its bill, while most other hummingbirds are far more flexible. Thus, its foodplants are found across almost the entire diversity of angiosperms. Very popular with this bird are Zingiberales
, such as Costus scaber (Costaceae
), or Heliconia standleyi and Heliconia stricta
(Heliconiaceae). Other well-liked foodplants of this hummingbird include Gentianales
like Duroia hirsuta
, Palicourea lasiantha, Psychotria bahiensis and Psychotria platypoda (Rubiaceae
), Lamiales
such as Sanchezia peruviana (Acanthaceae
) or Drymonia semicordata (Gesneriaceae
), and Myrtales
like Cuphea melvilla (Lythraceae
). Even congener
ic plants with flowers of slightly different length and curvature are avoided on the other hand.
Given the difference in bill curvature between males and females, it seems likely that the sexes avoid competing for the same food resource by visiting different plants, but there has been little in-depth study. Whether there has been any coevolution between the Hairy Hermit and its foodplants is more difficult to determine, but if anything, it seems to be less widespread than it could be presumed. Most plants visited by this hummingbird are also pollinated by less discriminating species. But for some (such as Cuphea melvilla, Psychotria bahiensis and P. platypoda) the Hairy Hermit seems to be a pollinator of crucial importance, indicating that – though less often than the characteristic bill shape suggests – strong mutualisms between this bird and some of its foodplants do indeed exist.
The female Rufous-breasted Hermit lays two eggs in a small cup nest with a tail, made of rootlets and attached to the underside of a palm, fern or Heliconia
leaf one or two meters (3–6 ft) above ground or so. The nests are often near a stream, waterfall or roadside, and are surprisingly easy to find. Incubation is 17 days with 23 more to fledging, and this species may nest up to four times in a season. The male of this aggressive and inquisitive hummingbird helps to build and defend the nest, but does not incubate the eggs. At least regionally (e.g. in Colombia
), the species breeds all year.
Hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings...
that breeds from Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
south to Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, and on Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, Tobago
Tobago
Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
and Grenada
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
. It is a widespread and generally common species, though local populations may change in numbers and disappear altogether in marginal habitat
Description
It is 10.7 cm (4.2 in) long and weighs 7 g (0.246917734735784 oz) on average. The bill measures around 3.3 cm (1.3 in) and is strongly decurved, long and thin – though compared to the bills of other hummingbirds, it is rather robust. The Rufous-breasted Hermit has a brownish head, bronze-green upperparts and rufous underparts. The tail has green central feathers and rufous outer feathers, all tipped white. The bill has a yellow lower mandible and a black upper mandible. Sexes are similar, but the male has yellow streaking on the upper mandible, and the female may be slightly duller in plumage. The bill of females is also proportionally a bit shorter (though this is hardly recognizable) and more decurved (which is quite conspicuous in direct comparison).Immature males are somewhat more distinct, resembling a barbthroat (Threnetes). They were once described as a distinct species, the "Black Barbthroat" ("T. grzimeki"). Similarly, the proposed subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
abrawayae is apparently based on individual variation occurring in adults and not taxonomically distinct either.
The call of this species is a high-pitched sweet.
Ecology
This hermitHermit (hummingbird)
The hermits are tropical and subtropical hummingbirds in the subfamily Phaethornithinae, comprising 30–40 species in six genera. They occur from southern Mexico, through Central America, to South America as far south as northern Argentina....
inhabits forest undergrowth, often near running water. The Rufous-breasted Hermit's food is nectar, taken from a variety of understory
Understory
Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...
flowers, and some small invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s.
G. hirsuta has very discriminating feeding habits. It will only visit flowers whole corollar length and curvature precisely matches that of its bill, while most other hummingbirds are far more flexible. Thus, its foodplants are found across almost the entire diversity of angiosperms. Very popular with this bird are Zingiberales
Zingiberales
Zingiberales is an order of flowering plants. The order has been widely recognised by the taxonomists, at least for the past few decades. This order includes many familiar plants like ginger, cardamom, turmeric, galangal and myoga of the Zingiberaceae or ginger family, and bananas and plantains...
, such as Costus scaber (Costaceae
Costaceae
Costaceae or the Costus Family is a family of pantropical monocots. They belong to the order Zingiberales, which contains other horticulturally and economically important plants such as the banana , bird-of-paradise , and edible ginger...
), or Heliconia standleyi and Heliconia stricta
Heliconia stricta
Heliconia stricta is a "clumping" species of Heliconia, commonly found in the Caribbean islands, Central America and South America.Some common cultivated varieties are:*Bucky*Dwarf Jamaican*Fire Bird*Iris Bannochie*Oliveira's Sharonii*Tagami...
(Heliconiaceae). Other well-liked foodplants of this hummingbird include Gentianales
Gentianales
Gentianales are an order of flowering plants, included within the asterid group of dicotyledons.The circumscription of Gentiales in the Cronquist system included a broadly defined Loganiaceae , Retziaceae, Gentianaceae, Saccifoliaceae, Apocynaceae, and Asclepiadaceae...
like Duroia hirsuta
Duroia hirsuta
Duroia hirsuta is a myrmecophyte tree species from the Amazon Forest. It is one of some 37 species of Duroia which are shrubs or canopy trees in the family Rubiaceae, favouring ants , and occurring in Central America as far north as Mexico, the Amazon Basin, the Guiana Shield, the Brazilian...
, Palicourea lasiantha, Psychotria bahiensis and Psychotria platypoda (Rubiaceae
Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the coffee family, madder family, or bedstraw family. The group contains many commonly known plants, including the economically important coffee , quinine , and gambier , and the horticulturally valuable madder , west indian jasmine ,...
), Lamiales
Lamiales
Lamiales is an order in the asterid group of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It includes approximately 11,000 species divided into about 20 families...
such as Sanchezia peruviana (Acanthaceae
Acanthaceae
The family Acanthaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species....
) or Drymonia semicordata (Gesneriaceae
Gesneriaceae
Gesneriaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of ca. 150 genera and ca. 3,200 species in the Old World and New World tropics and subtropics, with a very small number extending to temperate areas. Many species have colorful and showy flowers and are cultivated as ornamental plants.Most...
), and Myrtales
Myrtales
The Myrtales are an order of flowering plants placed as a basal group within the rosid group of dicotyledons...
like Cuphea melvilla (Lythraceae
Lythraceae
Lythraceae are a family of flowering plants. It includes about 620 species of mostly herbs, with some shrubs and trees, in 31 genera. Major genera include Cuphea , Lagerstroemia , Nesaea , Rotala , and Lythrum...
). Even congener
Congener
Congener has several different meanings depending on the field in which it is used. Colloquially, it is used to mean a person or thing like another, in character or action.-Biology:In biology, congeners are organisms within the same genus...
ic plants with flowers of slightly different length and curvature are avoided on the other hand.
Given the difference in bill curvature between males and females, it seems likely that the sexes avoid competing for the same food resource by visiting different plants, but there has been little in-depth study. Whether there has been any coevolution between the Hairy Hermit and its foodplants is more difficult to determine, but if anything, it seems to be less widespread than it could be presumed. Most plants visited by this hummingbird are also pollinated by less discriminating species. But for some (such as Cuphea melvilla, Psychotria bahiensis and P. platypoda) the Hairy Hermit seems to be a pollinator of crucial importance, indicating that – though less often than the characteristic bill shape suggests – strong mutualisms between this bird and some of its foodplants do indeed exist.
The female Rufous-breasted Hermit lays two eggs in a small cup nest with a tail, made of rootlets and attached to the underside of a palm, fern or Heliconia
Heliconia
Heliconia, derived from the Greek word helikonios, is a genus of about 100 to 200 species of flowering plants native to the tropical Americas and the Pacific Ocean islands west to Indonesia. Many species of Heliconia are found in rainforests or tropical wet forests of these regions...
leaf one or two meters (3–6 ft) above ground or so. The nests are often near a stream, waterfall or roadside, and are surprisingly easy to find. Incubation is 17 days with 23 more to fledging, and this species may nest up to four times in a season. The male of this aggressive and inquisitive hummingbird helps to build and defend the nest, but does not incubate the eggs. At least regionally (e.g. in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
), the species breeds all year.
Further reading
- ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2
- Hilty, Steven L. (2003): Birds of Venezuela. Christopher HelmHelm Identification GuidesThe Helm Identification Guides are a series of books that identify groups of birds. The series include two types of guides, those that are:* Taxonomic, dealing with a particular family of birds on a worldwide scale—most early Helm Guides were this type, as well as many more-recent ones,...
, London. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
External links
- "Hairy Hermit"-Glaucis hirsuta videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Stamps (for GrenadaGrenadaGrenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
, GrenadinesGrenadinesThe Grenadines is a Caribbean island chain of over 600 islands in the Windward Islands.-Geographic boundaries:They are divided between the island nations of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. They lie between the islands of Saint Vincent in the north and Grenada in the south. Neither...
of Grenada, GuyanaGuyanaGuyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
) with RangeMap - Rufous-breasted Hermit photo gallery VIREO Photo-High Res-(Close-up)(rufous breast and bill)
- Photo-Medium Res; Article
