Violet-tailed Sylph Aglaiocercus coelestis Cometa Colivioleta

Violet-tailed Sylph Aglaiocercus coelestis
Colombian name: Cometa Colivioleta

Cerro Montezuma, Risaralda, Colombia
April 2012

The Violet-tailed Sylph is distributed on the Pacific slopes of the western Andes in Colombia and Ecuador. These photos, taken in the Tatamá National Park are close to its northern limit. There is a distribution map at Natureserve.

It is found in cloud forest and semi-open land at between 1,000 and 2,000 metres.

The male, seen here in photos 1 to 3, is very similar to Long-tailed Sylph A. kingi but has a blue rather than green tail, a more violet gorget and a bluer rump. The female (photos 4 and 5) has a blue crown, green spots on the throat, a white chest and cinnamon rufous belly.

It feeds on nectar where it is a trap-line feeder and also feeds on insects.

Its call is a rapid tez-it at about one per second.

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Female Violet-tailed Sylph, Cerro Montezuma, Risaralda, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image

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