Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Vi­o­let sabrew­ing hum­ming­birds (Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus) have a broad ge­o­graphic range ex­tend­ing across the neotrop­ics. Vi­o­let sabrew­ings occur through­out por­tions of north­ern Mex­ico, El Sal­vador and Guatemala, to Costa Rica and Hon­duras. Their dis­tri­b­u­tion ex­tends as far south as north­ern South Amer­ica. ("IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2010; Sib­ley and Mon­roe Jr, 1990)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus is found in trop­i­cal habi­tats, par­tic­u­larly coastal slopes, in­land forests, and trop­i­cal grass­lands. They occur at el­e­va­tions rang­ing from 3,300 to 8,000 me­ters. Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus does not mi­grate, be­cause food (nec­tar from flow­ers and small in­sects) is abun­dant in their habi­tats year-round. Thus, this re­gion pro­vides an ex­cel­lent place for breed­ing and there is no need for mi­gra­tion. (Land, 1963; Skutch, et al., 2010)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest

• Aquatic Biomes
• coastal

• Range elevation

  3,300 to 8,000 m

  to ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus is one of the larger hum­ming­bird species in the Fam­ily Trochil­i­dae, usu­ally grow­ing to an av­er­age length of 15 cm. It is bril­liantly col­ored, with a va­ri­ety of sharp vi­o­lets, greens, blacks, blues, and whites. The dark vi­o­let and bright blue feath­ers, mixed with dark for­est-green feath­ers, pro­vide ex­cel­lent cam­ou­flage in forested areas. Its name, sabrew­ing, refers to the strik­ing flat and thick shafts on its outer feath­ers. The bill is long and curved, well-adapted for ex­tract­ing nec­tar from flow­er­ing plants. Flow­ers with ra­dial sym­me­try are pre­ferred, be­cause they can eas­ily hover be­side the plant while ex­tract­ing nec­tar.

Male and fe­male Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus have dif­fer­ent col­oration. The male's body is gen­er­ally dark vi­o­let and blue on the ven­tral side, with dark green or black on the dor­sal side. Fe­males tend to be more green­ish on the ven­tral side and black on the dor­sal side. Both are eas­ily rec­og­nized by their dis­tinc­tive vi­o­let throats. Males and fe­males share the same tail pat­tern with black and white col­oration. Ju­ve­nile vi­o­let sabrew­ings are dis­tin­guished by their lack of vi­o­let col­oration and flat feath­ers. (Land, 1963; Marin, 2001; Skutch, et al., 2010)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

• Range mass

  9 to 12 g

  0.32 to 0.42 oz

• Average length

  15.24 cm

  6.00 in

• Average wingspan

  82.6 mm

  3.25 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus be­haves much like other species of hum­ming­birds dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son. Males form groups of six to ten and begin to sing loudly from their leks. Fe­males, upon hear­ing the mat­ing call, begin to build nests using mosses and other plant ma­te­r­ial. Grasses and small twigs found through­out the sur­round­ing habi­tat are used for nest build­ing just be­fore mat­ing. This usu­ally oc­curs dur­ing the rainy sea­son (May through Au­gust). Like all hum­ming­birds and typ­i­cally all lekking species, C. hemileu­cu­rus is polyg­y­nous. Pairs re­main to­gether only long enough for fer­til­iza­tion. The males then aban­don the nest, leav­ing the fe­males to in­cu­bate the eggs and care for the off­spring. (Marin, 2001)

• Mating System
• polygynous

The breed­ing sea­son for C. hemileu­cu­rus oc­curs dur­ing the rainy sea­son from May through Au­gust. It is thought that the hum­ming­birds choose this sea­son for its abun­dance of food, both for them­selves and for the off­spring. A clutch size of two eggs per nest is typ­i­cal. Fe­males in­cu­bate these eggs for 20 days. After a few hours of hatch­ing, fe­males begin feed­ing spi­ders and flu­ids to the off­spring. About 11 to 12 days later, young nestlings reach their full body mass, with males tend­ing to be larger than fe­males. Nestlings fledge 22 to 24 days after hatch­ing. In many hum­ming­bird species, the fe­male feeds her fledg­lings for 18 to 25 days after they have left the nest, but exact du­ra­tion for C. hemileu­cu­rus is un­known. Re­pro­duc­tive age is also cur­rently un­known.

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus usu­ally breeds twice per sea­son. Fe­males typ­i­cally build a sec­ond nest close to or on top of their first. (Marin, 2001; Schuch­mann, 1999)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Campylopterus hemileucurus breeds two times per season

• Breeding season

  The breeding season occurs from May through August

• Average eggs per season

  2

• Average time to hatching

  21 days

• Range fledging age

  22 to 24 days

Fe­male vi­o­let sabrew­ings are the main providers of care for off­spring. After the in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod, fe­males care for the young nestlings even after they have fledged. Within hours of being born, the moth­ers begin to feed the new­born nestlings a diet that con­sists of flu­ids and spi­ders. Dur­ing the com­ing weeks the mother will con­tinue to care for the young pro­tect­ing them from preda­tors such as other birds, mice, and cats until they have all reached in­de­pen­dence and are able to sur­vive on their own. (Marin, 2001; Schuch­mann, 1999)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lit­tle or no data has been col­lected for lifes­pan of C. hemileu­cu­rus or other species in the genus Campy­lopterus. The av­er­age lifes­pan of hum­ming­birds in the Fam­ily Trochil­i­dae is 3 to 5 years. (Perry, 2011)

Be­hav­ior

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus is a soli­tary species that spends about three-fourths of its time perched. Like other hum­ming­birds, they are very cu­ri­ous and will in­ves­ti­gate all po­ten­tial food sources. They are di­ur­nal, with peak ac­tiv­ity dur­ing dawn and dusk. They ob­tain their food through­out the day. They hover in place while feed­ing by al­ter­nat­ing flap­ping their wings for­ward and back­ward. They can hover long enough to lap nec­tar from flow­ers. In flight, hum­ming­birds never stop beat­ing their wings. They can fly back­wards and up­side down, in ad­di­tion to their di­rect flight path. Dur­ing cold nights, hum­ming­birds go into tor­por in order to con­serve en­ergy. Through­out tor­por, their body tem­per­a­ture and heart­beat de­crease and they take on an ir­reg­u­lar breath­ing pat­tern.

Trop­i­cal hum­ming­birds, like vi­o­let sabrew­ings, do not mi­grate. How­ever, they change el­e­va­tion dur­ing sea­sonal and cli­matic changes.

Ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity is crit­i­cally im­por­tant among hum­ming­birds, es­pe­cially while for­ag­ing. Com­pared to smaller hum­ming­birds, like ruby-throated hum­ming­birds (Archilochus col­u­bris), vi­o­let sabrew­ings are not very ag­gres­sive. Due to their large size, they dom­i­nate dur­ing feed­ing and oth­ers often leave when they see this species ap­proach­ing. (Camp­bell and Lack, 1985; Gill, 1995; Sk­tuch and Singer, 1973; Tyrrell and Tyrell, 1985)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• daily torpor
• solitary
• territorial

Home Range

Av­er­age ter­ri­tory size for this species is cur­rently un­known.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus com­mu­ni­cates through calls and songs. Both males and fe­males pro­duce spe­cific calls. These calls are com­monly short sharp twit­ters made while vis­it­ing flow­ers to feed. Males gen­er­ate high-pitched songs that are used both to at­tract mates as well as to de­fend their ter­ri­to­ries. Like other hum­ming­birds (Fam­ily Trochil­i­dae), the wings of C. hemileu­cu­rus cre­ate a hum­ming noise dur­ing flight.

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus has ex­cel­lent vi­sual per­cep­tion and can see things at far dis­tances. They have color vi­sion and are drawn to brightly col­ored flow­ers for their nec­tar. They also have ul­tra-vi­o­let light per­cep­tion that aids in their for­ag­ing for nec­tar, since many flow­ers have such color pat­terns. They do not have a well-de­vel­oped sense of smell and gen­er­ally visit flow­ers with lit­tle to no scent. In ad­di­tion, their hear­ing is ex­tremely finely tuned. They can hear high-pitched sounds and de­tect tiny dif­fer­ences in sound qual­ity.

Like most birds, Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus per­ceives its en­vi­ron­ment through vi­sual, tac­tile, au­di­tory and chem­i­cal stim­uli. (Camp­bell and Lack, 1985; How­ell, 2002)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• ultraviolet
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Hum­ming­birds are very small birds with high me­tab­o­lisms. They must feed al­most con­stantly since most of their en­ergy is spent fly­ing. Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus is pri­mar­ily nec­tiv­o­rous but also in­sec­tiv­o­rous. Most of their diet comes from flo­ral nec­tar, with the rest from arthro­pods (Phy­lum Arthro­poda), in­clud­ing flies (Order Diptera), spi­ders (Order Araneae), ants (Order Hy­menoptera), bee­tles (Order Coleoptera), and other small or­gan­isms. They oc­ca­sion­ally feed on non-in­sect arthro­pods. Their only lim­i­ta­tion in feed­ing is prey size, al­though they are ca­pa­ble of swal­low­ing sur­pris­ingly large or­gan­isms.

Food choice of all hum­ming­birds is chiefly de­ter­mined by sea­son and habi­tat. As a non-mi­gra­tory hum­ming­bird, C. hemileu­cu­rus de­pends on local food re­sources. They ob­tain nec­tar from brightly col­ored flow­ers, par­tic­u­larly those in the Neotrop­i­cal genus Mar­c­gravia dur­ing their flow­er­ing sea­son. They are most at­tracted to red and yel­low flow­ers that are shaped like their beaks (long, tubu­lar, and ra­di­ally sym­met­ric). When hum­ming­birds open their beaks, they lap up the nec­tar with their tongues, which have grooves on the sides that col­lect the liq­uid. Vi­o­let sabrew­ings can con­sume con­sid­er­able amounts of nec­tar, al­most equal to twice their weight, on a daily basis.

Con­ve­nience also plays a major role in the feed­ing pat­terns of this bird. They visit flow­ers from which they can most eas­ily ob­tain in­sects and nec­tar. Dur­ing other parts of the year, when flo­ral nec­tar is lim­ited, arthro­pods are their main food source. Dur­ing this pe­riod, C. hemileu­cu­rus often hov­ers over for­est streams and darts at large swarms of gnats. This hov­er­ing tech­nique dur­ing feed­ing is com­mon in all hum­ming­birds. (Rem­sen, et al., 1986; Wag­ner, 1946)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • nectarivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

• Plant Foods
• nectar

Pre­da­tion

Adult vi­o­let sabrew­ings have few preda­tors. This has been at­trib­uted to mostly to their large body size. How­ever, ju­ve­nile hum­ming­birds are threat­ened by mice and cats. Nest preda­tors are the great­est threat to off­spring; these in­clude snakes, jays, tou­cans, hawks, and a few bats.

Male vi­o­let sabrew­ings are easy to rec­og­nize with their bright pur­ple col­or­ing and large size. Fe­males, in con­trast, have a cryp­tic col­oration, an adap­ta­tion that cam­ou­flages them from preda­tors. Fe­male hum­ming­birds also fly in a zigzag when re­turn­ing to their nests in order to evade preda­tors. (Camp­bell and Lack, 1985; Sk­tuch and Singer, 1973)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • snakes (Suborder Serpentes)
  • jays (Family Corvidae)
  • bats (Suborder Microchiroptera)
  • toucans (Family Ramphastidae)
  • hawks (Family Accipitridae)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus, like many other species of hum­ming­birds, are pol­li­na­tors. They pol­li­nate var­i­ous trop­i­cal plants while feed­ing on nec­tar. Of­ten­times they pol­li­nate plants used to shade cof­fee plan­ta­tions. With­out these birds and their rel­a­tives, many trop­i­cal plants would be un­able to re­pro­duce and local cof­fee pro­duc­tion would be re­duced. A small group of in­ver­te­brates known as hum­ming­bird mites also feed on nec­tar. They use hum­ming­birds to trans­port them from plant to plant to feed on nec­tar. (Cof­fee & Con­ser­va­tion, 2009)

• Ecosystem Impact
• pollinates

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus plays a crit­i­cal role in pol­li­na­tion of neotrop­i­cal plants. It pol­li­nates a va­ri­ety of trop­i­cal plants, but the most im­por­tant to hu­mans are trees in the genus (Car­po­da­cus). These trees are im­por­tant in pro­vid­ing shade for cof­fee plan­ta­tions. (Cof­fee & Con­ser­va­tion, 2009)

• Positive Impacts
• pollinates crops

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse af­fects of C. hemileu­cu­rus on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Based on the IUCN Red List, the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of C. hemileu­cu­rus is "Least Con­cern". Pop­u­la­tions are not be­lieved to be de­creas­ing rapidly enough to ap­proach the thresh­olds for "Vul­ner­a­ble" sta­tus.

The major threats to hum­ming­birds are habi­tat degra­da­tion, loss, and frag­men­ta­tion. Al­though vi­o­let sabrew­ings are not listed, most North Amer­i­can species are pro­tected under the Mi­gra­tory Bird Treaty Act. All hum­ming­bird species are listed by CITES in Ap­pen­dix II ex­cept the hook-billed hum­ming­bird (Glau­cis dohrnii), which is listed in Ap­pen­dix I. ("IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2010; CITES, 2010; Michi­gan Nat­ural Fea­tures In­ven­tory, 2009; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ser­vice, 2011)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• CITES

  Appendix II

Con­trib­u­tors

Patrick Boyd (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Heather Vin­ing (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Chris­tine Small (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

2010. "IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line). Campy­lopterus hemileu­cu­rus. Ac­cessed April 04, 2011 at www.​iucnredlist.​org.

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Bird, D. 2004. The Bird Al­manac: A Guide to Es­sen­tial Facts and Fig­ures of the World's Birds. New York: Fire­fly Books.

CITES, 2010. "Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 04, 2011 at http://​www.​cites.​org/​eng/​app/​appendices.​shtml.

Camp­bell, B., E. Lack. 1985. A Dic­tio­nary of Birds. Vemil­lion: Buteo Books.

Cof­fee & Con­ser­va­tion, 2009. "Cof­fee and con­ser­va­tion are your beans for the birds" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 05, 2011 at http://​www.​coffeehabitat.​com/​2009/​09/​violet-sabrewing/​.

Dickey, D., A. Van Rossem. 1938. The Birds of El Sal­vador. Chicago: Field Mu­seum of Na­tional His­tory.

Dun­ning, J. 2008. CRC Hand­book of Avian Body Masses. Florida: CRC Press.

Gill, F. 1995. Or­nithol­ogy, Sec­ond Edi­tion. New York: Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­sity Press.

Hen­der­son, C. 2010. Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide. Texas: Uni­ver­sity of Texas Press.

How­ell, S. 2002. Hum­ming­birds of North Amer­ica. San Diego: AP Nat­ural World.

Land, H. 1963. A col­lec­tion of birds from the Caribbean low­lands of Guatemala. The Con­dor, 65/1: 49-65.

Marin, M. 2001. Post­na­tal de­vel­op­ment of the vi­o­let sabrew­ing in Costa Rica. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 113/1: 110-114.

Michi­gan Nat­ural Fea­tures In­ven­tory, 2009. "Michi­gan's Spe­cial An­i­mals" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 04, 2011 at http://​web4.​msue.​msu.​edu/​mnfi/​data/​specialanimals.​cfm#​grp3.

Perry, L. 2011. "Those hum­ming­birds in your gar­den" (On-line). Ac­cessed May 01, 2011 at http://​www.​uvm.​edu/​pss/​ppp/​articles/​hummers2.​html.

Rem­sen, J., F. Stiles, P. Scott. 1986. Fre­quency of arthro­pods in stom­achs of trop­i­cal hum­ming­birds. The Auk, 103/2: 436-441.

Ridg­way, R., H. Fried­mann. 1911. The Birds of North and Mid­dle Amer­ica. Wash­ing­ton: Gov­ern­ment print­ing of­fice.

Schuch­mann, K. 1999. Fam­ily Trochil­i­dae. J del Hoyo, A El­liott, S Jordi, eds. Hand­book of the Birds of the World, Vol. 5. Barcelona: Lynx Edi­cions.

Sib­ley, C., B. Mon­roe Jr. 1990. Dis­tri­b­u­tion and Tax­on­omy of Birds of the World. New Haven: Yale Uni­ver­sity Press.

Sk­tuch, A., A. Singer. 1973. The Life of the Hum­ming­bird. New York: Crown Pub­lish­ers, Inc..

Skutch, A., S. Adams, C. Hen­der­son. 2010. Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide. Austin Texas: Uni­ver­sity of Texas Press.

Tyrrell, E., R. Tyrell. 1985. Hum­ming­birds: Their Life and Be­hav­ior. New York: Crown Pub­lish­ers, Inc.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ser­vice, 2011. "Mi­gra­tory Bird Pro­gram" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 04, 2011 at http://​www.​fws.​gov/​migratorybirds/​.

Wag­ner, H. 1946. Food and feed­ing habits of Mex­i­can hum­ming­birds. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 58/2: 69-93.

Williamson, S. 2001. A Field Guide to Hum­ming­birds of North Amer­ica. New York: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pany.

Willmer, P., S. Cor­bet. 1981. Tem­po­ral and mi­cro­cli­matic par­ti­tion­ing of the flo­ral re­sources of Jus­ti­cia aurea amongst a con­course of pollen vec­tors and nec­tar rob­bers. Oe­colo­gia, 51/1: 67-78.