Speckled Hummingbird Adelomyia melanogenys Colibrí Pechipunteado

Speckled Hummingbird Adelomyia melanogenys
Colombian name: Colibrí Pechipunteado

Rio Blanco, Caldas, Colombia
April 2012

The Speckled Hummingbird is distributed from Venezuela through the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and into north-western Argentina. See the map at Natureserve. It is found in humid forest and forest borders at between 1,000 and 2,500 metres but is commonest at about 2,000 metres.

It has a short, straight bill and is bronzy green above. It has blackish cheeks and a buffy streak behind the eye. Below is buffy white and the tail has buffy tips. There are 7 sub-species and this one from the central Andes is A. m. cervina which has fine brown spots on the throat and richer buff underparts than the other sub-species.

It feeds on nectar often by perching or clinging as well as hovering and also feeds on insects.

I originally mis-identified this bird but was relieved to note that Steve Hilty says in Birds of Colombia: "Duller and browner than most hummingbirds and often mistaken for a female or immature."

Its call is a rapid and repeated dit-dit.

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