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The Tufted Coquette (Lophornis ornatus )
The Tufted Coquette (Lophornis ornatus) is a tiny hummingbird that breeds in eastern Venezuela, Trinidad, northern Brazil and right here in Guyana. It is an uncommon but widespread species, which appears to be a local or seasonal migrant, although its movements are not well understood.
This small bird inhabits open country, gardens and cultivation. It is 6.6 centimetres long and weighs 2.3 grams. Its black-tipped red bill is short and straight.
The male Tufted Coquette is a striking bird. It has a rufous head crest and a coppery green back with a whitish rump band that is prominent in flight. The forehead and underparts are green, and black-spotted rufous plumes project from the neck sides. The tail is golden rufous.
The female lacks the crest and plumes. She has green upperparts, except for the whitish tail band, and rufous underparts which become much paler on the belly. The tail is mostly bronze green with a dusky band and whitish tips to the feathers. Immature males are like the female, but the throat is whitish with fine dark spotting.
The female lays two eggs in a small cup nest that is made of plant parts and is strategically placed on a branch.
Tufted Coquettes generally are tame and approachable. Their food is nectar, taken from a variety of flowers, and some small invertebrates.
A Tufted Coquette
They are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they reject flower types that produce nectar which is less than 10 per cent sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is stronger. Nectar is a poor source of nutrients, so hummingbirds meet their needs for protein, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. by preying on insects and spiders, especially when feeding young.
Most hummingbirds have bills that are long and straight or nearly so, but in some species the bill shape is adapted for specialized feeding. Thornbills have short, sharp bills adapted for feeding from flowers with short corollas and piercing the bases of longer ones. The Sicklebills’ extremely decurved bills are adapted to extracting nectar from the curved corollas of flowers in the family Gesneriaceae. The bill of the Fiery-tailed Awlbill has an upturned tip, as in the Avocets. The male Tooth-billed Hummingbird has barracuda-like spikes at the tip of its long, straight bill.
The two halves of a hummingbird’s bill have a pronounced overlap, with the lower half (mandible) fitting tightly inside the upper half (maxilla). When hummingbirds feed on nectar, the bill is usually only opened slightly, allowing the tongue to dart out and into the interior of flowers.
Like the similar nectar-feeding sunbirds and unlike other birds, hummingbirds drink by using protrusible grooved or trough-like tongues.
The small size and steady flight means that this hummer often resembles a large bee as it moves from flower to flower. The call of this species while feeding is a light chik.
Hummingbirds are birds in the family Trochilidae, and are native to the Americas. They are among the smallest of birds, and include the smallest extant bird species, the Bee Hummingbirds. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12-90 times per second (depending on the species). They can also fly backwards, and are the only group of birds able to do so. Their English name derives from the characteristic hum made by their rapid wing beats. They can fly at speeds exceeding 15 miles per second (54 kilometres per hour; 34 miles per hour).
Hummingbirds do not spend all day flying, as the energy cost would be prohibitive; the majority of their activity consists simply of sitting or perching. They spend an average of 10-15 percent of their time feeding and 75-80 percent sitting and digesting.
Many plants pollinated by hummingbirds produce flowers in shades of red, orange, and bright pink, though the birds will take nectar from flowers of many colours. Hummingbirds can see wavelengths into the near-ultraviolet, but their flowers do not reflect these wavelengths as many insect-pollinated flowers do. This narrow colour spectrum may render hummingbird-pollinated flowers relatively inconspicuous to most insects, thereby reducing nectar robbing. Hummingbird-pollinated flowers also produce relatively weak nectar (averaging 25 percent sugars w/w) containing high concentrations of sucrose, whereas insect-pollinated flowers typically produce more concentrated nectars dominated by fructose and glucose.
(Source: Wikipedia – The Free Online Encyclopedia)
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