Violet-headed hummingbird

Appearance

Violet-headed hummingbirds are on average 8.1 cm in length with a short, straight bill that averages 13 mm in length. The head and throat of the male are intense violet or blue with white spots behind each eye that stands out against the dark head. The back is metallic bluish-green and breast is green fading to a grey belly. The tail is green with tiny white-grey tail spots. The wings are black.



The female is duller with a blue cap, green back and grey throat, breast and belly. The wings and tail are the same as the male. The female also has the white spot behind the eye.

Habitat

Violet-headed hummingbirds are found on the edges of humid primary forest, openings in secondary forests, in shrub and thicket clearings and in various human modified habitat such as ''Stachytarpheta'' hedges in Costa Rica and shade-grown coffee plantations in Venezuela.

Reproduction

In Costa Rica, males sing in loose leks beginning in October and intensifying until the breeding season in December. The chorus continues until the dry season causes the flowers to disappear in February and March. The chorus picks up again when the rains begin again in April, but the heavy rains of May shut the chorus down again until October. The leks are located 5 to 18 m above the ground on the edge of clearings where the males sing conspicuously from slender dead twigs. Occasionally, an individual will sing solo without other violet-headed hummingbirds nearby.

The nest is a mossy cup built 1 to 5 m above forested mountain streams. They are normally built in February, but sometimes as early as January. The last young fledge in May.

Food

The violet-headed hummingbird drinks nectar from understory flowering shrubs as well as taking small insects on the wing. In Costa Rica, a particular fondness for ''Stachytarpheta'' flowers has been reported with as many as one individual every 5–7 m on a hedge near Murcia.