Appearance
The steely-vented hummingbird is 9 cm long and weighs 4.5 g . It is mainly bronze-green above, becoming more bronze on the wing, lower back and rump, and has a blue-black tail. The male has glittering green underparts, white thighs and a blue vent. The female is duller green below and has grey-buff edges to the vent feathers. Young birds are dull dark bronze-green below.
Naming
synonyms''Saucerottia saucerrottei''
''Saucerottia sophiae''
''Amazilia sophiae''
''Amazilia saucerrottei''
Distribution
The Central American birds differ in voice and behaviour from those in South America and may be a separate species, the blue-vented hummingbird.Behavior
The nest is a cup of plant down and cobwebs, decorated outside with lichen and placed on a small outside twig 2–7 m high in a small tree. The female alone incubates the two white eggs.The steely-vented hummingbird has a trilled descending ''chit'' call in South America, but the Blue-vented from Central America has a high sharp ''tsip''. The male's song in Costa Rica is a buzzy ''bzz WEEP wup''.
Habitat
This hummingbird inhabits open woodland such as second growth, coffee plantations, gardens, savanna, and the edges and gaps of evergreen forests. It occurs from sea level up to 1,800 m .Food
This hummingbird feeds at many types of flowers, including epiphytes and ''Heliconias'', and both sexes are aggressive and territorial, defending favoured areas.References:
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