Empress Brilliant Heliodoxa imperatrix

Colombian name: Diamante Emperador
Female Empress Brilliant, Cerro Montezuma, Tatamá, Risaralda, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image Colombia and Ecuador

The Empress Brilliant is distributed on the Pacific slope (the Chocó side) of the western cordillera of the Andes in Colombia and northern Ecuador. See the distribution map at xeno-canto. It is found in the cloudforest and very wet foothills of that area between 400 and 2,000 metres.

The male has a frontlet throat and breast glittering green with a pale violet gorget. The female, shown in photos 1 to 3, lacks the frontlet and gorget with the centre of the throat and breast white with specks of green.

Both sexes feed mainly on the canopy and at the edges but usually only the female is seen in the understorey.

Female Empress Brilliant, Cerro Montezuma, Tatamá, Risaralda, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image The bird in photos 1 to 3 appeared to be bathing in water accumulated at the base of this bromeliad. They feed mainly on nectar of Marcgravia flowers.
Female Empress Brilliant, Cerro Montezuma, Tatamá, Risaralda, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image
Empress Brilliant, Yanacocha Reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador, November 2019 - click for larger image
Empress Brilliant, Refugio Paz de las Aves, Pichincha, Ecuador, November 2019 - click for larger image
Empress Brilliant, Amagusa Reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador, November 2019 - click for larger image
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