I have just realised that it is exactly a year since we woke to a freezing-cold morning in the Colombian Andes and spent the morning enjoying a cornucopia of avian delights, as a Victorian novelist might have described the experience.
This male Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) did not stay in one place for long when visiting a feeder at Hacienda El Bosque, a popular birding lodge at an altitude 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) almost at the highest point of a pass over the Cordillera Central of the northern Andes. This is a spectacular hummingbird. It is big for a hummingbird and has the longest bill at 13-14 cm, longer than the rest of the body excluding the tail. The sword-bill co-evolved with the long corolla of a species of passion-flower. The male is slightly larger than the female but has the shorter bill. Individuals are said to have a regular beat (‘trap line’ feeders) during the day, visiting flowers in a set order over and over again. As well as nectar they do eat insects and are reliant on insects to supply sufficient protein to their young.
The development of a very long bill during co-evolution with a plant that supplies the nectar and has its pollen spread in return came with one problem: it cannot preen its feathers with its bill. Instead it uses its feet for that essential process.
The Sword-billed Hummingbird occurs along the Andes from Venezuela in the north to Bolivia in the south. The altitude of Hacienda el Bosque is about the maximum throughout its range.
The light was not easy for high-speed photography but I did get a few shots while pondering how this bird manages to fly and hover while it takes in the large amount of sugar it needs each minute just to stay alive.
We moved on with the feeling that, as with other spectacular birds of the high forests that can be seen at Hacienda el Bosque, the sword-bill was something a bit special.
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| Incoming! A Buff-winged Starfrontlet (Coeligena lutetiae) (left) also heads for the feeder |
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