Reddish hermit

The reddish hermit (Phaethornis ruber) is a species of bird in the family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and in the Guianas. At 7.5 cm (3 in) and a weight under 3 grams, it is among the smallest of the hermits and smallest birds overall.[2] Its natural habitats are forest and woodland, primarily humid.

Reddish hermit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Apodiformes
Family: Trochilidae
Genus: Phaethornis
Species:
P. ruber
Binomial name
Phaethornis ruber
Synonyms

Trochilus ruber Linnaeus, 1758

Taxonomy

The reddish hermit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Trochilus ruber. [3] The specific epithet niger is Latin and means "black".[4] The species had been described and illustrated in 1743 and named the "little brown huming-bird" by the English naturalist George Edwards.[5] The type locality is Suriname.[6] The reddish hermit is now placed in the genus Phaethornis that was introduced in 1827 by William Swainson.[7][8]

Four subspecies are recognised:[8]

  • P. r. episcopus Gould, 1857 – central, east Venezuela, Guyana and northwest Brazil
  • P. r. ruber (Linnaeus, 1758) – Suriname and French Guiana through Brazil to southeast Peru and north Bolivia
  • P. r. nigricinctus Lawrence, 1858 – east Colombia and southwest Venezuela to north Peru
  • P. r. longipennis Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1902 – south Peru

Distribution and habitat

The majority of the reddish hermit's range, in northern and central South America, is the entire Amazon Basin to the foothill drainages of the eastern Andes slope. The Caribbean and Atlantic coasts of the entire Guianas are included in the northeast; in the southeast, the southeastern limit is the eastern banks of the Tocantins River in the Araguaia-Tocantins River system, usually included as part of the Amazon Basin. The countries included in the bird's range in the western Amazon Basin drainage are Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

Besides the reddish hermit's range in the Amazon Basin, to the northwest it is found in southern and eastern Venezuela adjacent to the Guianas; this is most of the eastern portions of Venezuela's Orinoco River drainage. A second large contiguous and disjunct range exists on the southeastern Atlantic coastal strip of Brazil, up to about 350 km wide, for about 4,500 km. The strip extends from northeastern states Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba in the north, to southern São Paulo state. This coastal strip avoids most of the interior Cerrado region.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Phaethornis ruber". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Wood, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. Sterling Pub Co Inc. (1983), ISBN 978-0-85112-235-9
  3. Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Volume 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 121.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Edwards, George (1743). A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Part 1. London: Printed for the author at the College of Physicians. p. 32, plate 32 upper.
  6. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-List of Birds of the World. Volume 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 14.
  7. Swainson, William John (1827). "A synopsis of the birds discovered in Mexico by W. Bullock, F.L.S. and Mr. William Bullock jun". Philosophical Magazine. New Series. 1: 364–369, 433–442 [441].
  8. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2021). "Hummingbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 11.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 7 February 2021.


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