Diet and Foraging

Coppery Metaltail is primarily nectarivorous, but the diet of this species is not well documented. Reported flowering plants visited by Coppery Metaltail include flowers of melastome shrubs (Brachyotum, Macleania) (Fjeldså and Krabbe 1990).

Coppery Metaltail also consumes small arthropods, as do most if not all species of hummingbirds (Remsen et al. 1986).