Green hermit

It is {{convert|13.5|cm|abbr=on}} long and weighs {{convert|6.3|g|abbr=on}}. The male is mainly dark green with a blue-green rump. It has a dark mask through the eye, with buff stripes above and below this, and down the centre of the throat. The central feathers of the tapered tail are—for large hermit—relatively short and white-tipped, and are wiggled in display at the communal leks. The reddish bill is long and decurved. The female is sooty gray (rather than green) below, with an even longer bill and a much longer tail. The call of this species is a loud zurk, and the males' lekking "song" is a repeated swark.

File:Green Hermit.jpg

The nominate subspecies Phaethornis guy guy is found in Venezuela and Trinidad. The western P. g. apicalis of the American Cordillera is slightly smaller and the sexes more similar.

This hermit inhabits forest undergrowth, usually near water, and prefers hilly areas. It seems to favor primary rainforest and wet premontane forest, and though it tolerates some amount of habitat destruction (e.g. subsistence farmland) it will try to avoid secondary forest as long as better habitat is available. In the Colombian Cordillera Oriental, it has been recorded at altitudes from {{convert|650|-|1750|m|abbr=on}} ASL. Habitat there usually has a canopy height of around {{convert|25|m|abbr=on}} and is dominated by trees such as Elaeagia (Rubiaceae) or palms;E.g. Iriartea deltoidea or Wettinia praemorsa: Salaman et al. (2002) there is usually plentiful undergrowth and/or epiphytes and hemiepiphytes (e.g. Clusiaceae).Salaman et al. (2002)

File:Phaethornis guy Monteverde.ogg

The food of this species is nectar, taken from a wide variety of flowers, and some small insects; it prefers flowers 30–50 mm long by 2–7 mm wide, though it will occasionally visit flowers up to 75 mm long and 20 mm wide or as short as 15 mm. At Monteverde (Costa Rica), preferred foodplants include yellow jacobinia (Justicia umbrosa) and Razisea spicata (Acanthaceae), Pitcairnia brittoniana (Bromeliaceae), spiral ginger (Costus barbatus, Costaceae), Drymonia conchocalyx and D. rubra (Gesneriaceae), Heliconia tortuosa (Heliconiaceae), and Malvaviscus palmanus (Malvaceae). Less commonly visited flowers were mostly Gesneriaceae,Recorded at Besleria triflora, Columnea anisophylla, C. lepidocaula, C. magnifica, C. microcalyx, Glossoloma tetragonum and Solenophora calycosa: Temeles et al. (2002) Heliconiaceae (such as Heliconia bihai),{{cite web |website=The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago|publisher=UWI |title=Phaethornis guy (Green Hermit) |url=https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Phaethornis_guy%20-%20Green%20Hermit.pdf}} Acanthaceae (such as Pachystachys coccinea) and Zingiberales,Recorded at Aphelandra tridentata, Poikilacanthus macranthus and Stenostephanus blepharorachis (Acanthaceae), and Renealmia thrysoides (Zingiberaceae): Temeles et al. (2002) but also certain BromeliaceaeRecorded at Guzmania nicaraguensis: Temeles et al. (2002) (such as Tillandsia fasciculata) CampanulaceaeRecorded at Burmeistera cyclostigmata and Centropogon solanifolius: Temeles et al. (2002) (such as Centropogon surinamensis), EricaceaeRecorded at Psammisia ramiflora: Temeles et al. (2002) and Rubiaceae.Recorded at Psychotria elata and Ravnia triflora: Temeles et al. (2002)Temeles et al. (2002)

As noted above, males assemble at leks for courtship. In the Colombian Cordillera Oriental, active leks were observed between September and November, but neither in August nor in December, indicating a distinct breeding season. The green hermit lays one egg in a conical nest suspended under a large leaf, usually over water. Incubation is 17–18 days, and fledging another 21 to 23 days.

{{Reflist}}

• ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton & Eckelberry, Don R. (1991): A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. {{ISBN|0-8014-9792-2}}
• Hilty, Steven L. (2003): Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London. {{ISBN|0-7136-6418-5}}
• Salaman, Paul G.W.; Stiles, F. Gary; Bohórquez, Clara Isabel; Álvarez-R., Mauricio; Umaña, Ana María; Donegan, Thomas M. & Cuervo, Andrés M. (2002): New and noteworthy bird records from the east slope of the Andes of Colombia. Caldasia 24(1): 157–189. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081121030001/http://www.unal.edu.co/icn/publicaciones/caldasia/24%281%29/240111.pdf PDF fulltext]
• Temeles, E.J.; Linhart, Y.B.; Masonjones, M. & Masonjones, H.D. (2002): The role of flower width in hummingbird bill length-flower length relationships. Biotropica 34(1): 68–80. {{doi|10.1111/j.1744-7429.2002.tb00243.x}} [http://www.amherst.edu/~ejtemeles/Temeles%20et%20al%202002%20biotropica.pdf PDF fulltext]

• [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=2979 Green Hermit videos]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071006111103/http://www.zeledonia.org/galeria/fotos/Phaethornis_guy.jpg Green Hermit Photo] [https://web.archive.org/web/20070824134609/http://zeledonia.org/galeria/trochilidae.html Article]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20001121181700/http://www.bird-stamps.org/cspecies/8601100.htm Stamps]}} (for Trinidad and Tobago) with range map
• [http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=green+hermit&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 Green Hermit photo gallery]

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green hermit

Category:Birds of Costa Rica

Category:Birds of Panama

Category:Birds of the Northern Andes

Category:Birds of Trinidad and Tobago

Category:Hummingbird species of Central America

Category:Hummingbird species of South America

green hermit

Category:Taxa named by René Lesson