| Hook-billed Hermit (Glaucis dohrnii) Brazilian name:
balança-rabo-canela |
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Boa Nova, Bahia, Brazil
July 2002The Hook-billed Hermit is distributed in a few sites in the states of Bahia and Espírito Santo in south-east Brazil. It is classified as Endangered by Birdlife International who have an excellent page on the species here. |
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The literature tells us that it is found in lowland primary forest especially in damp areas near streams where there are Heliconia plants. Jeremy Minns and I saw this bird in dry forest mata-de-cipó near Boa Nova. Not only was the habitat wrong but we saw the bird only for a few seconds. This was largely due to my eagerness to get a decent photograph. I had been trying to get some photos without flash of Slender Antbird Rhopornis ardesiacus so had my camera set to ISO 800. When Jeremy spotted this hummingbird the light was even poorer and this photo was taken at 1/15sec. f/5.6 with a 100-400mmm IS zoom set at 400mm. To get even this poor photo with a hand-held camera was quite an achievement. I switched on my flash-gun and re-set my camera but the flash disturbed the bird and the resulting shot was unusable. I thought that Jeremy was quite restrained considering I had spooked such a rare bird.
It is similar to Rufous-breasted Hermit G. hirsutus with its ochraceous orange underparts and dark green upperparts but it has an almost straight bill and has no rufous on the tail. Note the white supercilium and malar and the dusky face. |
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