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Magenta-throated Woodstar | Philodice bryantae
Costaricaanse boself | Colibrí magenta
The Magenta-throated Woodstar is a small hummingbird of the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama. It was formerly placed with the Purple-throated Woodstar in the genus Calliphlox. The male has a magenta-red throat and a long, forked tail that is usually held closed in a point. The flight is slow and buzzing, like that of a bee.
Voice
A dry, soft tsit, sometimes in short series; the wings give a low, bee-like buzz in flight.
Recording: Andrew Spencer — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
7–8 cm without the male's elongated tail feathers, with a short, straight black bill. Both sexes have a white spot behind the eye and a white patch on each side of the rump. The male is bronzy green above, with a glittering magenta-red throat, a white band across the breast, green underparts with rufous flanks and a long, deeply forked, blackish tail. The female has a pale throat, cinnamon underparts and a rounded tail with a rufous base, a black band and rufous tips.
Confusion species
Volcano Hummingbird Selasphorus flammula and Scintillant Hummingbird Selasphorus scintilla are equally small but lack the white rump patches; the males have a short tail, with much rufous in Scintillant. Female White-crested Coquette Lophornis adorabilis has a white band across the rump and a white belly. Purple-throated Woodstar Philodice mitchellii occurs only in Darién and the male has a purple throat.
Habitat
Edges of montane rainforest and foothill forest, clearings, scrub, coffee plantations and gardens, at about 700 to 2000 m, outside the breeding season sometimes lower. It feeds at small flowers of shrubs and trees, often high in the canopy, and perches for long periods on bare twigs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Endemic to the guide area. In the mountains of Costa Rica, mainly the Cordillera de Tilarán, the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera de Talamanca, and in western Panama in Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro, Ngäbe-Buglé and Veraguas.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Costa Rica at flowering shrubs and feeders around Monteverde and at montane forest edges in the Central Valley; in Panama around Boquete and Volcán in Chiriquí. Look for a small hummingbird hovering quietly with a buzz among the flowers and returning to a bare twig.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Fairly scarce and local, but it also occurs in gardens and semi-open farmland. Loss of montane forest affects it locally.
Scientific name
Philodice bryantae | (Lawrence, 1867) (GBIF: Calliphlox bryantae)
Lawrence described the species in 1867 as Doricha bryantae; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Philodice was introduced in 1866 by Mulsant, Verreaux & Verreaux. Philodice refers to Philodice of Greek mythology, daughter of Inachus and wife of Leucippus. bryantae honours Elizabeth Brimmer Bryant, née Sohier (1823–1916), wife of the American ornithologist Henry Bryant. The specimen the first description was based on came from Costa Rica.