By: Ric Chamblee
Tilmatura dupontii
The Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird is one of my favorite hummingbirds to photograph and quite small in size. The Male Sparkling-tailed Hummingbirds are 8.2 to 10.1 cm (3.2 to 4.0 in) long – including the tail. Females are 5.8 to 7.5 cm (2.3 to 3.0 in) long. They weigh between 2.4 – 3.3 grams (0.08 – 0.12 oz)
The Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird not high up on the dominance chain, maybe because of their small size, so they’re very often chased away from the popular flowers by Cinnamon Hummingbirds and Berylline Hummingbirds.
The day that I photographed this pretty little guy was no exception. He was constantly being chased away by the Cinnamon and Berylline. He would escape his aggressors and either go up into a nearby tree or inside the Stachytarpheta bush. When he’s constantly being chased away, it makes it very difficult to photograph him because his movements are extremely rapid. He was very persistent to continue returning for his needed nectar. The one advantage he has over his aggressors is that he’s smaller, so often he can maneuver inside the thick vegetation better than them. When I took this picture was one of the times that he had gone inside the bush to take a brief rest, but he was on high alert. I love how he regularly displays his gorget (pronounced gor-jit) (colorful patch under the chin) which can be seen variations are blue or purple depending on how the sunlight is hitting it.
When the Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird is feeding at flowers and not being chased it f lies slowly and methodically, like a big bee, often with the tail held cocked. A couple of the best ID features are the big white rump patches and the long tail, long in relation to its size.
One of the favorite flowers for all the hummingbirds at the Vallarta Botanical Garden is the Stachytarpheta, in colors purple or coral. Sometimes individual bushes are favored over others. Suspected reason being the maturity of the bush, causing the nectar to be better or more abundant.
The Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird is found discontinuously in Mexico from Sinaloa in the west to Veracruz in the east, south through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and into northern Nicaragua. It’s found mainly in shrubby areas with flower banks, within areas of open woodland and forest.
The Sparkling-tailed Hummingbird visits the Vallarta Botanical Garden sporadically throughout the year for a few weeks and up to a couple of months at the time, come and see it!
