Sooty-capped Hermit

Phaethornis augusti (Bourcier, 1847)

Spanish: Ermitaño Limpiacasa

The Sooty-capped Hermit (Phaethornis augusti) is a hummingbird in the subfamily Phaethornithinae (hermits). It weighs about 6.0 g and its bill is 35.4 mm long. It lives in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. Its IUCN Red List status is Least concern, with a stable population.

See it in the explorer eBird page ↗

At a glance

Weight

6.0 g, about 6 paperclips

Bill

35.4 mm

Lives in

Forest

Moves

Stays put all year

Red List status

Least concern, stable

Its place in the family

1. Family Trochilidae hummingbirds
2. Subfamily Phaethornithinae hermits
3. Genus Phaethornis hermits

What Phaethornis share: Long, curved bills and long central tail feathers, often white-tipped. Males gather in leks to sing.

Where it lives · 5 countries

• Venezuela
• Colombia
• Brazil
• Guyana
• Suriname rare visitor

Others in the genus Phaethornis

• Buff-bellied Hermit Phaethornis subochraceus
• Planalto Hermit Phaethornis pretrei
• White-browed Hermit Phaethornis stuarti
• Scale-throated Hermit Phaethornis eurynome
• Reddish Hermit Phaethornis ruber
• Gray-chinned Hermit Phaethornis griseogularis
• Stripe-throated Hermit Phaethornis striigularis
• Black-throated Hermit Phaethornis atrimentalis
• Cinnamon-throated Hermit Phaethornis nattereri
• Minute Hermit Phaethornis idaliae

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