Male Long-billed Starthroat

Sightings
The male Long-billed Starthroat is one of the avian delights of a visit to the Asa Wright Centre in Trinidad. It is a beautiful little bird with an overall length of 11 centimetres including its long straight black bill which measures 3.5 cm. It tends to stay in the forest but occasionally comes to the area with the feeders although it tends to remain in the surrounding vegetation and at too great a distance for a best photograph. With poor afternoon light, I haven’t managed to do justice to its iridescent reddish throat of the male Long-billed Starthroat.

Species
Long-billed Starthroat Heliomaster longirostris is a hummingbird that breeds from southern Mexico to Panama, from Colombia south and east to Bolivia and Brazil, and on Trinidad. It is present throughout South and Central America and is an uncommon but widespread species, which appears to be a local or seasonal migrant, although its movements are not well understood. It inhabits forest and is usually seen in woodland clearings, but will sometimes visit gardens. It feeds on nectar taken from a variety of flowers, and some insects.

Status and distribution
It is a species of least concern with an unknown population thought to be decreasing in a huge breeding area of nearly twelve million square kilometres. Its greatest range is east of the Andes and covers the entire Amazon Basin and northern South America including the Guianas. It is a scarce resident on Trinidad and absent on Tobago. There are three subspecies of which H. l. longirostris is found in Trinidad.

References
Asa Wright Centre; BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 166

Photograph
1/1250th of a second, f5.6 and ISO 1000