Cola-de-lira Raqueta/Racket-tailed Coquette/Discosura longicaudus

Nombre en español: Cola-de-lira Raqueta

Nombre en ingles: Racket-tailed Coquette

Nombre científico: Discosura longicaudus

Familai: Trochilidae

CAnto: Phil Stouffer

El rabudito de raquetas (Discosura longicauda), también denominado coqueta de cola raqueta y cola de lira raqueta, es una especie de ave apodiforme de la familia de los colibríes que vive en el norte de Sudamérica.

Distribución y hábitat

Se encuentra en el norte y este de Brasil, el este de Colombia, la Guayana Francesa, Guyana, Surinam y Venezuela.

Su hábitat natural son las selvas húmedas tropicales de regiones bajas.

Racket-tailed coquette

The racket-tailed coquette (Discosura longicaudus; sometimes Discosura longicauda) is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae native to northern South America.

Taxonomy

Racket-tailed coquettes illustrated in John Gould’s A monograph of the Trochilidae

German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the racket-tailed coquette in 1788. Its species name is from the Latin words longus «long» and cauda «tail». It is sometimes considered to be the only member of the genus Discosura, as the thorntails, the other possible members of the genus, are often placed in the genus Popelairia.

Martin Johnson Heade depicted two coquettes in his painting Two Green-Breasted Hummingbirds (c. 1863), as part of his «Gems of Brazil».

Description

The species weighs about 3.4 grams (0.12 oz) and is sexually dimorphic. The male is around 10.2 centimetres (4.0 in) long and has a distinctive brilliant green head and throat with a copper-coloured abdomen. The dark purple-brown tail is 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) long, and forked, with two very long prongs, ending with a pair of round paddle- («racket») shaped feathers. The female is shorter with a length of 6.9 centimetres (2.7 in). It has duller green upperparts and breast, black throat bordered by white and a white belly. Its tail is grey tipped with white, and lacks «rackets».

Distribution and habitat

The racket-tailed coquette has a wide distribution range; it is found in northern Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and southern Venezuela. It is also found on the eastern tip of Brazil Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, as well as riparian forests and scrubby savannahs.

Behavior

Racket-tailed coquettes typically gather in the canopy of hapaxanth trees with other hummingbirds and steal other larger hummingbirds’ nectar. They are consequently chased by the larger birds.

They build their cup-sized nests out of soft plants and down 3–6 metres (9.8–19.7 ft) up a tree. Females usually have a clutch of two eggs, which are incubated for 13–14 days.

Once sharing the genus with several other species, the Racket-tailed Coquette is now frequently classified as the only species remaining in the genus Discosura. It often feeds in the canopy of mass-flowering trees and steals nectar from the territories of large hummingbirds. Consequently, large species often chase after Racket-tailed Coquettes. The elegant black rackets on the male’s long outer most tail feathers and the buffy band across the rump of both sexes help readily identify this hummingbird. Although threatened by deforestation and considered rare throughout its range, this species is not currently listed as globally threatened. Its favors riparian areas of humid forests and scrubby savannahs but much of its range is unprotected; this is particularly concerning since these hummingbirds do not adapt to areas which have been disturbed by humans.