Pale-bellied hermit

Appearance

The pale-bellied hermit is about 13 cm long. Males weigh 4.5 to 5.5 g and females 4 to 5 g. This medium-sized hermit has dark green to olive green upperparts and light gray underparts. The face has a black "mask" with a buffy supercilium and a mostly white throat. The male's bill is almost straight and the female's is decurved. "P. a. hyalinus" has more bluish green upperparts and paler underparts than the nominate. Members of the suggested "P. a. fuscicapillus" have shorter wings and bills than the rest of the nominate.

Distribution

The nominate subspecies of pale-bellied hermit taken as a whole is found in central Panama; northern, central, and eastern Colombia; and western and northern Venezuela. The suggested "P. a. fuscicapillus" is the population in Colombia's Eastern Andes and possibly includes the Venezuelan population as well. "P. a. hyalinus" is found only on the Pearl Islands off the Pacific coast of Panama.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the pale-bellied hermit as being of Least Concern, though its population size and trend are unknown. It is uncommon to locally common in most of its range, abundant in a few regions, and occurs in several protected areas.

Habitat

The pale-bellied hermit mostly inhabits semi-deciduous forest and also drier woodland, secondary forest, gallery forest, plantations, and brushy and thorny landscapes. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about 1,500 m.

Reproduction

The pale-bellied hermit's breeding seasons appear to vary across its range but have not been fully defined. It suspends a cone-shaped nest under a drooping leaf like many other species of its genus. Its clutch size is two eggs.

Food

The pale-bellied hermit is a "trap-line" feeder like other hermit hummingbirds, visiting a circuit of a wide variety of flowering plants for nectar. It also consumes small arthropods.