Wine-throated Hummingbird Atthis ellioti
Version: 1.0 — Published March 29, 2013
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Behavior
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Behavior
Wine-throated Hummingbird is described by most authors as subordinate to larger species of hummingbird (Züchner 1999), although Baepler (1962) described it as "very pugnacious ... often seen chasing larger hummingbirds from feeding areas".
Territoriality
Little information. Thurber et al. (1987) estimated that males at a lek defended territories that were "no more than 30 m in diameter".
Sexual Behavior
Wine-throated Hummingbird presumably is polygynous. Male Wine-throated Hummingbirds sing at dispersed leks, with individual males separated by 25-30 m (Skutch, in Bent 1964; Thurber et al. 1987). These leks may contain as few as four individuals (Skutch, in Bent 1964), although Thurber et al. (1987) observed nine males within an area of ca 120 x 100 m.
Song perches are bare exposed twigs in a bush or the low branch of a tree (Skutch, in Bent 1964). When singing, the male spreads the feathers of the gorget; "at times he made a long, looping flight, returning again to the perch from which he started, and continued his singing during the entire journey" (Skutch, in Bent 1964).
Social and interspecific behavior
Wine-throated Hummingbird usually is solitary, as is typical of hummingbirds, except when singing at leks (see Sexual Behavior).