Amethyst-throated Sunangel Heliangelus amethysticollis Scientific name definitions

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The Amethyst-throated Sunangel includes six subspecies, which differ subtly in the color of the gorget and the color of the forecrown. The taxonomy of these six subspecies has been complicated, with anywhere from one to three species recognized in this group. In brief, there is a group of three northern subspecies, in the Andes of northeastern Colombia and in Venezuela; and a very disjunct group of three southern subspecies, that occur from southern Ecuador south to Bolivia. The three northern subspecies sometimes are classified as a separate subspecies, Longuemare's Sunangel (Heliangelus clarisse); or some authors separate the population endemic to Venezueala as a separate species, Merida Sunangel (Heliangelus spencei). Features that are shared by all members of this group are the purple gorget in the male, and a conspicuous white or buffywhite crescent across the breast in both sexes. The throat of the female typically is dull brown (clarisse group) or rufous brown (southern amethysticollis group), but in some populations, especially in subspecies laticlavius of southern Ecuador and northern Peru, the female may have a purple gorget, similar to but smaller than that of the male. The Amethyst-throated Sunangel typically is a common species, and occupies humid forest and forest edges in montane evergreen forest.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

10–11 cm. Bill black and straight. Male shining green above with dark green crown, black ear-coverts and a narrow pale blue frontlet (can appear white in some lights); throat  and upper breast glittering purple (scaled pinkish violet), forming the gorget typical for this genus, bordered below by a white breastband  ; remainder of the underparts are yellowish to pale buff well spotted with green discs, especially laterally, and undertail-coverts are green, with white fringes; the shallowly forked tail is dark green centrally, with the outer rectrices blackish and occasionally with pale tips. Sexes are basically similar but female has less extensive black on ear-coverts, maroon throat scaled white on chin and green in centre, with many green discs laterally, fewer green discs elsewhere on underparts and thus overall appears more yellowish below. Juvenile presumably resembles female.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

9–10 cm; 5·0–6·0 g. Bill  blackish and straight  . Male shining dark bronzy-green above with dusky crown and a narrow glittering blue-green frontlet; throat and upper breast glittering rosy, forming the gorget typical for this genus, bordered below by a white pectoral band; remainder of the underparts are dusky buff spotted with green discs, especially laterally; the shallowly forked tail is dark bronzy-green centrally, with the outer rectrices blackish and occasionally with pale tips. Sexes are basically similar but female  lacks the shining gorget; instead throat feathers are dull brown with rufous subter­minal bar or a bronze-green fringe to the feather tips; belly usually less spotted with green. Juvenile resembles female. Race violiceps differs in having purplish gorget and a strongly blue frontlet, while female has duller frontlet to crown, smaller gorget and band of dark green separating this from white breastband; in male verdiscutus frontlet is emerald-green, a deep bronzy-purple crown that becomes paler on nape, with a dark line on lores, bordering upper edge of gorget, while female also has dark loral line, smaller gorget and dark green border.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

10 cm; 3·8–7·7 g (1 Weller, A. A. (2009). Revision of the Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Heliangelus amethysticollis): a new subspecies from southern Peru. Ornitologia Neotropical 20(4):609–618. Close ). Male has blackish bill, straight, rather short; above shining dark green with a glittering green frontlet; underparts with throat and upper breast rosy amethyst, forming a glittering gorget; this is narrowly bordered on the neck and the sides of head by black and below by a cinnamon pectoral band; lower breast with glittering green discs, rest of underparts buff with green discs, especially on flanks; undertail-coverts beige; tail feathers bronze-green centrally and blue-black laterally, occasionally with whitish corners; tail rather short and only slightly forked. Female similar to male but throat rusty with some black flecks and often a few rose-coloured feathers. Immature similar to female. Race laticlavius differs in having a reddish-purple gorget, whitish breastband and buffy greyish belly; race decolor has frontlet lighter and greener, gorget deeper violet, breastband whiter, belly greyer, less buff; and race apurimacensis differs from previous race (which is generally more turquoise-gold frontlet) and laticlavius (which is more turquoise-blue) by turquoise-green frontlet (in males glittering), broader throat patch, whitish-buff breast, and pale buff belly centre and abdomen, thus intermediate between decolor (paler) and nominate amethysticollis (darker) (1 Weller, A. A. (2009). Revision of the Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Heliangelus amethysticollis): a new subspecies from southern Peru. Ornitologia Neotropical 20(4):609–618. Close ).

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Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Shrubby forest borders, bushy pastures and openings within forest, within the broad elevational band 2000–3600 m.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Wet and humid montane forests (cloudforest and dwarf and elfin forest) with abundant moss and epiphyte growth in subtropical and temperate zones. Also at forest edge, in bushy second growth, and other open bushy terrain along streams up to humid grassy slopes. Mostly occurs in more or less closed woodland and is rather a cloudforest species. Seems to prefer damp bushy ravines and usually keeps inside the forest or close to the edges. Found mainly at 1800–3200 m, but most recorded in Peru to 3700 m (2 Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker (2007). Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ) and frequently observed above 2400 m; recently described race apurimacensis ranges to 3400 m (1 Weller, A. A. (2009). Revision of the Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Heliangelus amethysticollis): a new subspecies from southern Peru. Ornitologia Neotropical 20(4):609–618. Close ).

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

No known differences from H. clarisse.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Territorial. Usually forages at flowers at low to medium height, generally between 0·6 m and 6 m above ground, often along streams, but also hawks insects in short sallies from low perch.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Call a repeated, high-pitched, cricket-like, short trill (pitch c. 6 kHz, length c. 0·25 seconds), given either when perched or in flight. Similar to H. mavors, but trills typically shorter and more emphatic.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Call (race verdiscutus) a repeated dry, upward-inflected “tsik” or “tsit”, at rate of c. 1–3 notes/second.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Call a short, buzzy, dry trill (length c. 0·2 seconds), repeated at intervals.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Merida)

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Restricted-range species, endemic to the Mérida Andes of NW Venezuela. Global range estimated at just 5800 km² BirdLife International (2016) Species factsheet: Heliangelus spencei. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/05/2016. , with an Area of Occupancy of 2450 km² (3 Lentino, M. and Sharpe, C.J. (2015). Ángel del Sol de Mérida, Heliangelus spencei. In:. Close ). Locally fairly common in interior humid forest and at forest edge; shows stronger preference than congenerics for forest interior (4 Hilty, S. L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Main threats are expansion of agricultural frontier and habitat fragmentation (3 Lentino, M. and Sharpe, C.J. (2015). Ángel del Sol de Mérida, Heliangelus spencei. In:. Close ). Some 60% of its known distribution falls within protected areas (3 Lentino, M. and Sharpe, C.J. (2015). Ángel del Sol de Mérida, Heliangelus spencei. In:. Close ), particularly the 2004-km² Sierra de La Culata and 2764-km² Sierra Nevada National Parks. The latter suffers from overgrazing, but is otherwise reasonably well protected.

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Longuemare's)

Not globally threatened. CITES II. Generally common or fairly common; no potential threats identified to date. Considered abundant, at least seasonally, in upper Quinimarí Valley, Táchira (race verdiscutus).

Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Amethyst-throated)

Not globally threatened. CITES II. Fairly common and sometimes even abundant. Range has recently been extended further N in Ecuador to Napo province (5 Vogt, C.A. (2007). Range extensions and noteworthy records for mainland Ecuador. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. 127(3): 228–233. Close ). Protected by reserves in many areas throughout its extensive range, for instance in Cordillera Azul, Apurímac (Peru), and Beni (Bolivia).