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 - Santa Marta Sabrewing
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Santa Marta Sabrewing Campylopterus phainopeplus Scientific name definitions

Thomas Züchner, Eduardo de Juana, and Peter F. D. Boesman
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 1999

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Introduction

This large, glittering green hummingbird is endemic to the Santa Marta Mountains, in northeast Colombia, where it is locally fairly common on the southeast and northern slopes, although most of the recent records are from sites in the former area. The Santa Marta Sabrewing is an altitudinal migrant. During the dry season (February–May) it occurs at humid forest borders at 1200–1800 m, where it favors banana flowers in shade coffee plantations, but in the wet season (June–October) the species moves into open páramo almost as high the snowline at 4800 m. It is still unclear when and where the Santa Marta Sabrewing breeds. This sabrewing, which is considered to be globally Endangered, is suspected to be enduring an ongoing decline, given moderate habitat destruction and fragmentation, and elevational migrants of this nature obviously present special problems for their conservation.

Field Identification

c. 13 cm. Male has slightly decurved black bill; upperparts glittering emerald-green, postocular spot white, face black; throat and breast iridescent blue, rest of underparts dark green, shafts of outer three primaries thickened and flattened; tail squared, dark steely blue. Female upperparts shining green; below greyish-white with green flanks and undertail-coverts; tail mainly green with outer rectrices tipped greyish. Immature resembles adult female.

Systematics History

In the past sometimes placed in genus Saepiopterus. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

NE & S slopes of Santa Marta Mts, in N Colombia.

Habitat

Borders of humid forest, plantations, especially old banana plantations, sometimes in bushy páramo up to snow-line, at 1200–4800 m. Forages in lower strata.

Movement

Seasonal altitudinal movements at lower elevations (1200–1800 m) during dry season (Feb–May), higher, occasionally up to snow-line (4800 m), during wet season (Jun–Oct).

Diet and Foraging

Takes nectar and insects; no specific food plants recorded, except flowering banana (Musa); territorial.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Voice described as a plaintive double “twit-twit”, both in flight and display (1).

Breeding

Birds in breeding condition Apr–Jun, displaying males Jun–Jul. No further data available.

ENDANGERED. CITES II. Previously considered Near Threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Santa Marta Mountains EBA. Locally common but restricted in range. Readily accepts man-made habitats like banana plantations. Most of distributional range cannot be visited safely resulting in lack of life-history data.

Distribution of the Santa Marta Sabrewing - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Santa Marta Sabrewing

Recommended Citation

Züchner, T., E. de Juana, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Santa Marta Sabrewing (Campylopterus phainopeplus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.samsab1.01
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