Order
Caprimulgiformes
Family
Trochilidae
Genus
Coeligena
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Golden-bellied Starfrontlet Coeligena bonapartei

Catalina Palacios
Version: 1.0 — Published January 9, 2015

Appearance

Distinguishing Characteristics

Golden-bellied Starfrontlets, like other species of Coeligena, are medium sized hummingbirds with long straight black bills and white posocular spots. The male Golden-bellied Starfrontlet has a glittering green frontlet, but the rest of the head is black. The upper back is shiny green, and the rumps and underparts of males are fiery golden orange, but they range from golden orange to cinnamon among females. Males have a small purple or violet gorget.

Other names: Colibrí Inca Ventridorado (Spanish) (Hilty 2003), Inca de Bonaparte (French), Goldbauch-Andenkolibri (German) (Schuchmann 1999).

Similar Species

Blue-throated Starfrontlet, Coeligena helianthea, and Golden-bellied Starfrontlet both look very dark in the field, but in good light they are clearly different. C. bonapartei has a golden orange rump and belly, while C. helianthea has a blue green rump and a rosy belly (Hilty and Brown 1986).

Dusky Starfrontlet, Coeligena orina, also is similar to Golden-bellied Starfrontlet, but its back and underparts, including the tail, are uniformly dark, shiny, and green. C. orina does not have golden orange colors or a small bluish throat patch. In addition, Dusky Starfrontlet only occurs in the northwestern Andes in Colombia (Hilty and Brown 1986).

Buff-tailed Coronet, Boissonneaua flavescens, and female Violet-chested Hummingbird, Sternoclyta cyanopectus, could look similar to Golden-belled Starfrontlet, but their distributions do not overlap (Hilty 2003). Additionally, the coronet has a much shorter bill, and the bill of Violet-chested Hummingbird is decurved, not straight as in the starfrontlet.

Detailed Description

The following description is based on Züchner (1999b), and refers to nominate bonapartei; see also Geographic Variation:

Adult male: Glittering green frontlet, blackish crown. Small white postocular spot. Shining dark green upper back becoming greenish copper to golden orange on rump. Throat and breast are glittering green with a small central violet throat patch. Belly and lower underparts are glittering coppery to fiery or reddish gold. Tail is slightly forked; rectrices golden bronze green. Dusky wings.

Adult female: Similar to male but duller. Plain green frontlet. Small white postocular spot. Shining green above becoming golden orange on rump. Plain buff throat becoming spotted green on the sides. Breast is buff mixed green. Mostly cinnamon below, spotted glittering fiery gold belly, lower underparts are unspotted coppery gold. Rectrices bronze, sometimes with tipped with buff.

Immature: Resembles adult female.

Molts

Undescribed.

Bare Parts

Iris: black

Bill: black

Measurements

Total length: 10.9 cm (Hilty and Brown 1986), 11.4 cm (Hilty 2003).

Linear measurements:

Bill length: 30mm (Hilty and Brown 1986), 33 mm (Hilty 2003).

Mass: male, mean 6.6 g ± 0.6 g (range 5.3-10.1 g, n = 124; Echeverry-Galvis et al. 2006); female, mean 6.4 g ± 0.6 g (range 3.3-8.5 g, n = 94; Echeverry-Galvis et al. 2006)

Recommended Citation

Palacios, C. (2015). Golden-bellied Starfrontlet (Coeligena bonapartei), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.gobsta1.01