By Michael Vince
Geographic Range
The Steely-Vented Hummingbird, Amazilia saucerrottei, has a range from western Nicaragua to Costa Rica, Columbia and northwest Venezuela. It is a common resident of the north half of the Pacific slope and extends east to the Rio Frio region on the Caribbean slope in Costa Rica (Stiles and Skutch, 1989).
Habitat
(5904 ft)
A. saucerrottei prefers secondary growth and scrubby savanna with scattered trees, coffee plantations, and gardens. It is found regularly at openings and edges of evergreen gallery forest, especially during the dry season. It resides in lowlands and up mountain slopes to about 1800 meters (Stiles and Skutch, 1989).
These animals are found in the following types of habitat:
tropical 
; terrestrial .
Terrestrial Biomes:
forest .
Other:
urban ; agricultural .
Physical Description
(0.16 oz)
(3.54 in)
A. saucerrottei is 9 cm long and weighs 4.5 grams. It is all green with a bronzy rump and notched steel blue-black tail. The male has shading to bronze on wing-coverts and lower back, a purplish-bronze rump and upper tail-coverts, and the tail is dark steel blue to blue black. The bottom of the bird is entirely dark metallic green, with white thigh-tufts and a blue crissum (Stiles, 1989). The female's lower breast and belly is a duller green. The crissum feathers are edged with gray and the outer rectrices are purplish at the tips. The upper mandible is black and the lower a rose pink with black tip. The lower mandible is dusky with a reddish tip (Ridgely, 1989). The feet are black. The juvenile's underside is a dull, dark bronze-green (Stiles and Skutch, 1989).
Some key physical features:
endothermic ; bilateral symmetry .
Reproduction
A. saucerrottei builds a cup nest of compact pale-colored plants, down, and cobwebs, which is usually heavily decorated on the outside with lichens. The nest is usually placed on an outer twig of a small tree 2 to 7 meters above the ground (Stiles and Skutch, 1989).
Key reproductive features:
iteroparous ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization (internal ); oviparous .
Lifespan/Longevity
No information, probably similar to other hummingbirds.
Behavior
A. saucerrottei are aggressive medium sized hummingbirds (Tiebout, 1992). Both sexes are aggressive and often territorial at flowers (Stiles and Skutch, 1989). The bird is very territorial and often changes its aggressiveness throughout the day. It is more defensive during the morning and becomes slightly less aggressive in the afternoon (Tiebout, 1992).
Key behaviors:
flies; motile ; sedentary ; territorial .
Food Habits
A. saucerrottei visits many kinds of flowers for nectar. It likes the flowers of trees (Inga, Pithecellobium, Tabebuia, Genipa), shrubs (Hamelia, Stachytarpheta), vines, epiphytes and herbs (Lobelia). Both sexes are aggressive at flowers (Stiles and Skutch, 1989).Probably also consumes insects like other hummingbirds, but no specific information available.
Primary Diet:
herbivore (nectarivore ).
Plant Foods:
nectar.
Predation
These hummingbirds are probably subject to common nest predators such as snakes.
Ecosystem Roles
It is not known for this species in particular, but like other hummingbirds, they probably pollinate the flowers they visit while drinking nectar.
Key ways these animals impact their ecosystem:
pollinates.
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List: [link]:
Least Concern.
US Migratory Bird Act: [link]:
No special status.
US Federal List: [link]:
No special status.
CITES: [link]:
No special status.
We have no text on this topic for this species. Look to the sidebar on the right for some limited information.
Contributors
Michael Vince (author), University of Arizona.
Todd McWhorter (editor), University of Arizona.
