Pterophanes cyanopterus
The Great Sapphirewing (*Pterophanes cyanopterus*) is a truly magnificent and imposing hummingbird, ranking among the largest members of its family. Males are unmistakable with their brilliant iridescent sapphire-blue wing patches, often appearing as electric streaks in flight, contrasted against a dazzling blue-purple body, dark decurved bill, and white undertail coverts. Females exhibit a more subdued, yet still striking, green back with whitish underparts streaked with green, and possess s...
This species primarily inhabits high-elevation humid montane cloud forests, forest edges, and bushy slopes bordering páramo ecosystems. It is typically found at elevations ranging from 2,500 to 3,700 meters (8,200-12,100 feet), occasionally venturing as low as 2,000 meters or as high as 4,000 met...
Their diet consists primarily of nectar, especially from flowers with long corollas such as those in the genera *Bomarea*, *Centropogon*, and *Puya*, which they access with their long, decurved bills. They also supplement their diet with small insects and spiders, caught in flight or gleaned from...
Great Sapphirewings are diurnal, highly active foragers, often seen darting amongst high-altitude flora. They employ a 'trap-lining' foraging strategy, systematically visiting a circuit of scattered flower patches to glean nectar, returning to each in turn. Males can be aggressively territorial, ...
The Great Sapphirewing is a resident species distributed throughout the high Andes of South America. Its range extends from the Western, Central, and Eastern Andes of Colombia, southward through the Andes of Ecuador (on both eastern and western slopes), and further into the Andes of northern and ...
Least Concern
- The Great Sapphirewing is one of the largest hummingbirds in the world, rivaling the Giant Hummingbird in overall length. - Its dazzling sapphire-blue wing patches, which give it its common name, are actually structural colors, not pigment-based. - This species is a high-altitude specialist, of...