| Violet-headed Hummingbird Klais guimeti | ||||
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San Martin, Peru October 2018 The Violet-headed Hummingbird is distributed in Central America from Honduras to Panama, in northern Venezuela and on the eastern slope of the Andes from Colombia to Bolivia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found at forest edges at between 500 and 1,550 metres. |
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The male has a purplish-blue crown and throat while the female has a duller bluish-green crown. The white spot
behind the eye is distinctive.
They feed on small flowers both in the canopy of trees and close to the ground. The ones we saw were feeding on the flowers of verbena. |
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The generic name Klais refers to the daughter of Sappho, the Greek poetess of Lesbos. The specific name of guimeti refers to Jean Baptiste Guimet, a French chemist who invented the dye for ultramarine blue which made him both famous and rich. An old name for this species as used by the artist John Gould was Guimet's Flutterer. | |||
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