Brown Violetear (Colibri delphinae)
24 January 2009, Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica
Digiscoping hummingbirds is something of a fools errand, but this
individual returned to the same perch often enough that I was able to get a
reasonable picture.
This was an uncommon species at Rancho Naturalista and we only saw it
occasionally during our stay. Females resemble males, but immatures have
the back scaled with cinnamon feather fringes and lack the violet ear patch
of adults. This bird is an adult.
Some authors such as the AOU (7th ed.) hyphenate Violet-ear, but the AOU
removed the hyphen in their most recent published supplement. See:
http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCprop199.html
...for the reasons.
Its overall brownish coloration recalls some species of Hermit
hummingbirds, but its short straight bill and cinnamon color on its rump
help identify it. It ranges widely from Guatemala to Bolivia, but no
subspecies have been recognized.
Panasonic Lumix LZ5 / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30X WA hand-held (no adapter)