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  Profile

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  In flight

Hummingbirds

Rufous-crested Coquette

Lophornis delattrei

• epic
• 52 km/h
• Least Concern

One of the tiniest hummingbirds, with a spiky rufous crest bigger than its body deserves. Small package, enormous drama.

Population

50,000–499,999 mature individuals (decreasing) — per BirdLife/Partners in Flight 2019 estimate, cited on BirdLife DataZone's 2021 assessment

Habitat

Humid evergreen/montane forest edges, secondary growth, clearings, forest openings, roadsides, and semiopen shrubby habitat, roughly 500–2,000 m elevation

Fun fact

Males sport a spiky rufous crest and pump their tails in flight, giving them an insect-like appearance that can cause them to be mistaken for sphinx moths.

Range

Andean/Central American slopes from Costa Rica and Panama south through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, with a vagrant record in Brazil

Diet

Nectar from flowering plants (e.g. Inga, Myrtaceae, Verbenaceae) supplemented with small insects caught by hawking

Size

0.065 m

Lifespan

6.5 years