Blue-tufted Starthroat

Heliomaster furcifer (Shaw, 1812)

Spanish: Colibrí de Barbijo

The Blue-tufted Starthroat (Heliomaster furcifer) is a hummingbird in the subfamily Trochilinae (mountain gems, bees and emeralds), tribe Lampornithini (mountain gems). It weighs about 5.4 g and its bill is 32.6 mm long. It lives in Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least concern, with a decreasing population.

See it in the explorer eBird page ↗

At a glance

Weight

5.4 g, about 5 paperclips

Bill

32.6 mm

Lives in

Forest

Moves

Stays put all year

Red List status

Least concern, decreasing

Its place in the family

1. Family Trochilidae hummingbirds
2. Subfamily Trochilinae mountain gems, bees and emeralds
3. Tribe Lampornithini mountain gems
4. Genus Heliomaster starthroats

What Heliomaster share: Very long, straight bills.

Where it lives · 7 countries

• Argentina
• Paraguay
• Brazil
• Uruguay
• Bolivia
• Peru rare visitor
• Ecuador uncertain

Others in the genus Heliomaster

• Stripe-breasted Starthroat Heliomaster squamosus
• Plain-capped Starthroat Heliomaster constantii
• Long-billed Starthroat Heliomaster longirostris

Sources

Names: eBird/Clements Checklist (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Groups: Dickinson & Remsen (2013) and McGuire et al. (2014). Weight, bill, habitat and movement: AVONET (Tobias et al. 2022, CC BY 4.0). Countries: BirdLife International DataZone, checked against eBird records via GBIF. Red List status and trend: BirdLife International, the IUCN Red List authority for birds.

Spotted a mistake, or have a photo of this species? Write to Lia