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Campylopterus hemileucurus
The Violet Sabrewing is 15 cm long; the male weighs 11.5 g and the female 9.5 g. It is the largest hummingbird found outside of South America and the largest sabrewing. The adult male is deep violet, with a dark green back and wing coverts. The female is dark green above and grey below apart from a violet throat; the tail pattern is the same as the male's. Young Violet Sabrewings have buff edges to the feathers and lack any violet, although juvenile males may be dusky green-blue below. In spite of their size they are less aggresive when competing for food than other hummingbirds.
When sugar feeders are not around, the food of this species is nectar, taken mainly from undergrowth flowers with Heliconias and bananas as favourites. Hummingbird garden, Selvatura, Santa Elena. The hummies are in the wild and they just come from the forest to gorge on the sugar feeders.
Spotted on Apr 9, 2014
Submitted on May 14, 2014
2 Comments
Thanks annorion! And they are the biggest hummingbirds, at least in the area of Monteverde. These were taken in Santa Elena but when I will process my pics from Monteverde reserve and later from San Gerardo de Dota I will show more of these beauties :-)
I visited Costa Rica this past January and Sabrewings were one of my favorites! Such beautiful color!