Photo: Jodhan Fine, via iNaturalist, public domain / CC0. Unmodified apart from resizing.
Region
Elsewhere (in East Asia only in bird parks or botanic gardens)
Habitat
forest
Colour
green, purple, white
Size
small (under about 20 cm)
IUCN status
Least Concern
IOC breeding range
SA (sw Colombia and nw Ecuador)
Identification
10–11 cm long, about 5.3 g, with a short straight black bill. Only slightly dimorphic: both sexes dark velvety green above with a small white spot behind the eye, a dark steel-blue tail and dark green lower underparts speckled dark grey. The male has a small glittering green frontlet above the bill and a gorget of glittering rose to violet on throat and upper breast with a white pectoral band below; the female's chin is dark grey-brown with white fringes.
Habitat
Dense tall Andean forest and forest edge, feeding on nectar; resident.
Distribution
From far south-western Colombia's Nariño south discontinuously to north-western Ecuador in the Andes; monotypic. Absent from East Asia; Birdwatching Notebook lists it as an exotic.
Season and behaviour
Resident, seen all year within its range.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
A hummingbird's structural colour flashes only at the right angle, so have the bird face both the light and you for the violet throat to ignite; 1/4000 s or multiple high-speed flashes freeze the wings (only at authorised feeders, never at a nest). Andean lodges with feeders are the realistic place.
Field ethics: keep a distance at which the bird does not change its behaviour; never approach or publish nest sites; no baiting, playback or flash; never clear vegetation around a nest; follow reserve rules and stay on paths.
Photographic styles
A glittering gorget on a green body; the instant of a hover.
Similar species
Other sunangels (different gorget colours).
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from iNaturalist; its licence and author are under it.
