Residential range of the garnet-throated hummingbird. (Adapted from Howell and Webb, 1995)
None in general English use; Chupaflor alicastaño, Colibri alicastaño (Spanish).
Resident in Mexico from Guerrero in the west and Puebla in the east, southeast to the Chiapas–Guatemala border, thence extending south in Central America to El Salvador and Honduras.
None recognized here. The validity of a race (occidentalis) described by Phillips (1966) is questionable (Binford, 1989).
Wing, males 73.5–81 mm (ave. of 23, 77.2 mm), females 64–67.5 mm (ave. of 9, 66.2 mm). Culmen, males 15.5–18.5 mm (ave. of 23, 17.9 mm), females 15.5–18.5 mm (ave. of 9, 16.7 mm) (Ridgway, 1911). Eggs apparently undescribed.
Three birds of both sexes had a mean mass of 6.1 g (Dunning, 1993).
Adult male. Upperparts bright metallic green to bronze-green becoming more bronzy posteriorly, and the tail entirely purplish black to violet-purple; the remiges and their greater wing-coverts rufous to chestnut, with dusky purplish feather edgings; sides of the face from the lores to the auriculars and the sides of lower throat velvety black to purplish bronze; the chin and throat bright metallic reddish purple to purplish red; a small white postocular spot, and below the blackish throat the breast rich metallic violet to metallic green, depending on angle of view; breast, sides, and flanks also glossed with bronze-green; the lower underparts more slate, with grayish white femoral and rump tufts; Iris brown; feet dusky; bill black.
Residential range of the garnet-throated hummingbird. (Adapted from Howell and Webb, 1995)
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but the metallic green more bronzy, the sides of the headless glossy black and more grayish; only a few scattered metallic feathers on the mostly buffy brown throat; the other underparts mostly grayish dusky to deep sooty brown; the lateral rectrices all tipped with brownish gray, and the postocular spot of the male poorly developed and sometimes extended into an eye-stripe.
Immature male. Resembles the adult female, but with varying amounts of metallic blue feathering present on the throat.
In the hand. This hummingbird has an unusually short and straight bill (culmen maximum 18.5 mm) relative to its body size, which together with its chestnut-colored wing feathers fully separates it from the otherwise rather similar-appearing and comparably sized blue-throated, amethyst-throated, and magnificent hummingbirds.
In the field. This large hummingbird has distinctive chestnut-colored patches on the flight feathers and their greater coverts—the only comparatively large Mexican hummingbird having this trait. The male’s magenta-colored gorget is fully outlined posteriorly in black, unlike the similar amethyst-throated hummingbird, which has dusky coloration confined to the sides of the head. The white postocular spot of the male shows up well against the surrounding black area of the auricular region, and the female has a somewhat less conspicuous whitish spot, or more a linear streak behind the eye. She may also exhibit a few iridescent violet feathers on the throat where the male’s gorget is located. The black bill is also relatively short and straight in this species.
The garnet-throated hummingbird is associated with cloud forests and humid montane pine-oak forests, as well as forest edges and scrubby second-growth thickets, from about 900 to 3000 meters’ elevation. Nesting records range from about 1500 to 2300 meters. In Honduras the birds are limited to cloud forests above 1600 meters’ elevation (Monroe, 1968).
No migrations or other movements have been documented.
No specific information is available. The birds are said to favor various flowering trees as a primary food resource, and to feed at locations ranging from low to high above ground level. Possible foraging-site territoriality is still unreported. The short, straight bill of this species suggests it must be something of a generalist, with a very limited ability to extract nectar from flowers with deep-tubed corollas.
Breeding records in Mexico extend from December to March on the Pacific slope, and from April to May on the Atlantic slope and Oaxaca (Howell and Webb, 1995). Rowley (1966) reported on two nests that he found in Oaxaca. One was located along a washed-out creek bed where the roots of trees and bushes had been exposed below an overhanging bank. The nest was attached to the exposed roots, and was composed of green moss, with a plant fiber inner lining; and the entire structure was attached to the root by spider webbing. A large leaf and some pine needles also had been worked into the nest, which was of a large size (about 80 mm in external diameter at the base) and shape as to resemble the nest of a wood-pewee (Contopus) rather than a hummingbird. It was situated on a nearly level exposed section of root, with rootlets dangling below the nest. A second nest was later found in a similar situation, and it too was quite large, perhaps because it had been built on the remains of a previously used nest. A long “streamer” of pine needles hung below the nest.
This is the only member of its genus, but there seems little reason for maintaining this genus rather than merging it with Lampornis. The somewhat shorter and straighter bill of this species is practically the only feature that can be identified as a presumed generic trait separating it from typical Lampornis species.