Heliangelus micraster
The Flame-throated Sunangel (*Heliangelus micraster*) is a captivating, medium-sized hummingbird, typically measuring 10-11 cm (4-4.3 inches) in length and weighing between 4 and 6 grams. Males are stunning, featuring an iridescent emerald-green body with a brilliant, fiery orange-red gorget that shimmers with intense luminosity, often appearing golden or coppery depending on the light. This vibrant gorget, contrasting with a white breast band and a deeply forked, dark-bluish tail, serves as ...
This species primarily inhabits humid montane cloud forests, forest borders, and shrubby clearings in the high Andes, typically at elevations ranging from 2,300 to 3,700 meters above sea level.
Their diet consists predominantly of nectar extracted from a variety of small, tubular flowers, supplemented by small arthropods (spiders and insects) gleaned from foliage or captured in flight.
Flame-throated Sunangels are largely diurnal and solitary, spending their days foraging for nectar and insects. They often employ a 'trap-lining' foraging strategy, repeatedly visiting a circuit of favored flowering plants. Males are fiercely territorial, aggressively defending rich patches of fl...
The Flame-throated Sunangel is endemic to the humid montane forests of the Andes in southern Ecuador and northern Peru. Its breeding and year-round distribution is restricted to specific provinces in southern Ecuador, including Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe, extending south into the departments of Pi...
Least Concern
- The male's fiery orange-red gorget is not pigmented but a structural color, meaning its vibrant hue changes with the angle of light, appearing to 'flare' or dim. - Sunangel' is a fitting name for the genus, evoking the celestial beauty and radiant iridescence of these high-Andean hummingbirds. ...