Top Ten Birds of Costa Rica: #8 Talamanca Hummingbird

 

Hummingbirds light up the forests of the Neotropics. Costa Rica boasts around 50 species, and we saw most of these (38 to be exact) on our trip. Choosing a favourite is a near impossible task.

But the Talamanca Hummingbird Eugenes spectabilis is a good call. It's very much a range-restricted species, being only found in the mountains of Costa Rica and Western Panama (the Cordillera de Talamanca) above 2,000 metres altitude. It is a species that visiting birders will want to track down. Although not rare, you need to travel to find it.

Formerly called the Magnificent Hummingbird (more on this below), the large and long-billed Talamanca Hummingbird is certainly magnificent in appearance. Like many hummingbirds, the colours are not formed by pigments, but are instead created by the diffraction of light through structures in the feathers. This means that the birds can look very different with a change in viewing conditions. Beautiful though the images in bird guides may be, they can never do it full justice. The photograph at the start of this blog of a perched male Talamanca Hummingbird shows two of its main identification features - the white spot behind the eye and the iridescent turquoise throat. But it is missing a third key feature. To see it, look at what happened when the same bird turned to face the camera:

Talamanca Hummingbird - showing violet crown and turquoise throat

The crown that appeared matt black in the first image now reveals a sensational purple shine. A definite "wow" moment. But this flash of colour can vanish as quickly as it appears. Hummingbird photography requires time and patience, and doesn't easily into a birdwatching trip where you want to see  as much as you can. (Which is my way of saying that these photos could be better!)

Field identification of hummingbirds is surprisingly difficult. If you're not used to them (and even though I've now seen 90 species worldwide, I can hardly claim to be a regular hummingbird watcher) it takes some time to get used to their habits. Hummers move extremely quickly, with an annoying habit of darting out of sight as soon as bincoculars or cameras are focused on them. Your best bet is to wait for them to perch, ideally on a branch or twig. Even where feeders are present - and these are very often the best places to find hummingbirds - the birds will not spend long in any one place. And the resulting photographs never look quite as natural: see the image below of a female Talamanca Hummingbird - less striking than the male, and with a smaller white spot behind the eye.

Female Talamanca Hummingbird at a feeder

I took this picture with an iPhone, which shows another big advantage of visiting places with hummingbird feeders - you can get really close to the birds. All of the pictures in this blog post were taken at a place that is well known to Costa Rican and visiting birders alike - Miriam's Quetzals in the Dota Valley (website here). This friendly cafe is perched high on a forested slope, with hummingbird feeders and an outside viewing deck. Miriam owns cabins further down the road, where we spent a snug night surrounded by the forest. There is other accommodation here too: unlike many places that we visited, the Dota Valley is certainly on the tourist map.

Miriam's Quetzals cafe

I've already mentioned the "lumping" and "splitting" that can complicate the naming of birds. (See my post on the Blue-throated Toucanet here). The Talamanca Hummingbird is a good example. It results from splitting the Magnificent Hummingbird Eugenes fulgens into two species. It was decided by the powers that be that the Talamanca Hummingbird differed sufficiently in respect of the colours of its back, crown and throat. The other species, found further north in Central America and the southern USA, is known either as Rivoli's or Magnificent Hummingbird. Both new species are now recognised by various international bodies, including an update to the HBW/Birdlife Checklist (which I base my own world bird list on)  and the IUCN - a global nature conservation organisation. I should add that the IUCN rates the Talamanca Hummingbird of being as "least concern" in conservation terms, partly reflecting the protection provided by Costa Rica's mountain forest reserves. Long may it continue.

Will this be the only hummingbird in my Top Ten? Possibly not ...