Animalia Life

Threnetes ruckeri
SUBFAMILY
Phaethornithinae
TAXONOMY
Trochilus ruckeri Bourcier, 1847, Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Three subspecies currently recognized.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Rucker’s hermit; French: Ermite de Rucker; German: Weissbinden-Schattenkolibri; Spanish: Ermitгo Barbudo Colibandeado.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
4–4.3 in (10–11 cm); female 0.18–0.25 oz (5–7 g), male 0.19–0.25 oz (5.5–7 g). Medium-sized hummingbird with contrasting underpart coloration, almost straight bill, dark rectrices with white tips. Prominent white base to outer tail feathers, creating a subterminal black band. Immatures have ochraceous feather fringes on upperparts and light tips to remiges, otherwise similar to adults.
DISTRIBUTION
T. r. ventosus: eastern Guatemala and Belize to Panama; T. r. ruckeri: northern and western Colombia, Ecuador; T. r. venezuelensis: northwestern Venezuela.
HABITAT
Understory of primary and disturbed forest, secondary growth, forest edge, plantations, and riverine vegetation from sea-level to 4,000 ft (1,200 m).
BEHAVIOR
Traplining-species. Soft flight call. Song, a series of whistles, can be heard from perching males throughout the day.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Nectar of Heliconia, Costus, and other tubular flowers; also small arthropods, especially spiders taken from webs or underneath leaves. Nectar robbery recorded by piercing corolla base of tubular flowers too long for its bill.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Males establish leks during reproduction. Breeds on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica from February to May, on the Pacific slope from June to September; two nesting seasons in Colombia (January to April and in September). Nest is a loosely built cup of rootlets, plant fibers, vegetable hairs and spider web, similar, but more compact than that of Glaucis, and fixed to the underside tip of a long, pendent leaf. Two eggs; incubation 15–18 days by female. Fledging 23–25 days. Young remain with female for three to four weeks. Male observed in the vicinity of an incubating female.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Common throughout its range.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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