This striking hummingbird is scintillating, to say the least, with his glittering iridescent combination of blue and green.
Meet the Crowned woodnymph
The crowned woodnymph (Thalurania colombica), is a species of bird in the hummingbird Trochilidae family. Green above with an iridescent green cap, throat, and breast, the rest of his body, especially his belly, is a deep iridescent blue. His tail is forked, and dark blue.
The female is mainly green above, with gray underparts flecked with green on the sides of her breast and belly. Her tail is a dusky blue with white tips.
Her bill is black and slightly curved down.
This bird is found in Belize and Guatemala, all the way down through Central America, into Columbia and Peru.
Crowned woodnymph prefers subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical and, or tropical moist montane forests. They will also tolerate heavily degraded former forested areas.
A favorite food, and indeed mainstay of Crowned wood nymphs are nectar taken from a wide variety of brightly colored, scented, small flowers on trees, herbs, shrubs, and epiphytes. Looking for nectar with high sugar content, they use their long, extendible, straw-like tongues to retrieve the nectar, while hovering with their tails cocked upward. They can lick at the nectar up to 13 times per second.
During the breeding season, the female is responsible for building a cup-shaped nest out of plant fibers woven together, camouflaged on the outside with green moss. The nest is built in a protected shrub or tree, about 1 – 5 m from the ground. The nest is lined with soft material, strengthened with spider web. She lays a clutch of up to two white eggs which she incubates for about 15 – 19 days. She then goes on to feed the chicks once they are hatched until they leave the nest at 20 to 26 days.
Though the Crowned woodnymph is listed as at Least Concern on the IUCN list it is uncommon in some parts of extreme northern Peru.
