Black-throated Brilliant (Heliodoxa schreibersii)

Identification & Behavior: ~12.5 cm (5 in). The male Black-throated Brilliant is green above and black below with a purple iridescent patch on the throat (whitelyana), bordered by iridescent green below the patch (Schreibersii). The female is mostly green with a black throat bordered below by a purple iridescent patch. The tail is blue and forked, deeper in the male. The underparts look all black in poor light. The plumage is the Black-throated Brilliant is distinctive, but see Violet-fronted Brilliant and the male Black throated Mango in parts of its range.

Status: The Black-throated Brilliant is uncommon in isolated populations along the foothill of the Andes in most of Peru (600-1200 m). It ranges lower onto the Amazonian lowlands in the extreme northeast portion of the country. It also occurs in Co, Ec, and Br.

Name in Spanish: Brillante de Garganta Negra.

Sub-species: Black-throated Brilliant (Heliodoxa schreibersii schreibersii), Bourcier, 1847. SE Colombia to Ecuador, NE Peru, and nw Amazonian Brazil.
(Heliodoxa schreibersii whitelyana), Gould, 1872. East Andes of Peru.

Meaning of Name: Heliodoxa: Gr. Hēlios= sun and doxa= glory, magnificence. schreibersii: In honor of Karl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers (1775-1852) Austrian zoologist, Director of Imperial Mus. of Natural History, Vienna.

See more of the Family Trochilidae