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Plain-capped Starthroat

Heliomaster constantiiOrder: APODIFORMESFamily: Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Plain-capped Starthroat Breeding Male Portrait
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General

Plain-capped Starthroat: Medium-sized hummingbird with iridescent bronze-green upperparts and head, red throat, white face interrupted by black eyestripe, and pale gray underparts. Slightly notched tail is bronze-green with white-tipped black terminal band. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has dark gray-brown throat.

Range and Habitat

Plain-capped Starthroat: Casual to rare visitor to the U.S. in southeast Arizona; common in Mexico. Preferred habitats include tropical deciduous forests, cottonwood-willow streamside forests, and oak woodlands.

Voice Text

"chip", "peeek"

Interesting Facts

  • The Plain-capped Starthroatstrays casually to southern Arizona in summer and early fall, chiefly to elevations between 4,000 and 5,000 feet.
  • While birders most often find them at feeders, this species prefers hawking insects to taking nectar.
  • A group of hummingbirds has many collective nouns, including a “bouquet", "glittering", "hover", "shimmer", and "tune” of hummingbirds.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Plain-capped Starthroat
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Heliomaster constantii
Length4 - 5 Inches
Wingspan5.5 Inches

Plain-capped Starthroat

Plain-capped Starthroat: Medium-sized hummingbird with iridescent bronze-green upperparts and head, red throat, white face interrupted by black eyestripe, and pale gray underparts. Slightly notched tail is bronze-green with white-tipped black terminal band. Direct and hovering flight.

● Song: "chip", "peeek"

● Foraging & Feeding: Plain-capped Starthroat: Eats insects and nectar; forages by catching insects in mid-air and hover-gleaning insects high in the canopy.

● Breeding & nesting: Plain-capped Starthroat: Two white eggs are laid in a nest made of plant down, lichens, and bits of bark, and built on a branch tip at the forest edge or in a savanna. Incubation ranges from 16 to 19 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Plain-capped Starthroat: Blue-throated Hummingbird has blue-gray underparts, dark blue tail with bold white tip, blue throat (gray in female). Magnificent Hummingbird has black breast and belly and purple crown; female has green tail with pale gray tips on outer feathers.

Flight Pattern

Direct and hovering flight with very rapid wing beats.
Plain-capped Starthroat Breeding Male Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Plain-capped Starthroat: Casual to rare visitor to the U.S. in southeast Arizona; common in Mexico. Preferred habitats include tropical deciduous forests, cottonwood-willow streamside forests, and oak woodlands.
BreedingSolitary nester
PopulationCasual to rare
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight0.2 Ounces