| Violet-crowned Woodnymph is a locally common hummingbird throughout much of Central America. On my summer 2005 trip through central and western Panama, I found this species from the Canal area west to Santa Fé. The brightly-plumaged male is unmistakeable, but the smaller and plainer female can present i.d. problems. My birding partners and I found the hummingbird pictured below deep on Pipeline Road; we agonized over an identification until our guide, José Soto, caught up with us, and promptly pronounced it a female Violet-crowned Woodnymph. Mike Manetz and I agreed that the bird we were seeing barely resembled the one pictured in our field guide. In this picture, the only clue that this might be a Violet-crowned Woodnymph is the barely discernible white tips of the tail feathers, and the slightest hint of a white mark behind the eye. |
| Then there's the female hummingbird pictured below, which I observed for some time on a drizzly afternoon near my hotel in Santa Fé. By the process of elimination I have pretty much ascertained that this has to be a Violet-crowned Woodnymph (I've also scanned the web for some pictures that back up my i.d.). The white tail tips and dark breast band are the best clues here, although the field guides generally show less of a band than a demarcation between a white chest and a darker belly. The plumage is also somewhat confusing because the bird was ruffled by the rain, and quite possibly molting. Can you tell me with any confidence that the two birds on this page belong to the same species? Or even that the two images below are of the same bird (I only know this because of my continuous personal observation)? Female Violet-crowned Woodnymphs are a tricky bird, and I hope that future editions of regional field guides will give a little more space to this species. |
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Thankfully, male Violet-crowned Woodnymphs present no particular identification challenge. I filmed the beautiful bird pictured above and below
in the gardens near Raúl Arias de Para's house, adjacent to the Canopy Lodge in El Valle, in January of 2007. This hummingbird of the forest has generally been
common at the Lodge's feeders on the darker, more secluded rear portion of the guest quarters, but on this trip they were venturing out into the open, sun-drenched gardens.
I cannot say whether the local birds are becoming more acclimated to the premises or if they were more bold simply because there were fewer hummingbirds in the area during the dry season.
The stunning image below is the product of my ability to search my video footage frame-by-frame, capturing the woodnymph with its tongue extended.
By the by, the common name of this species is in some dispute; in 1998 the American Ornithologists' Union appropriately split what was formerly known as "Crowned Woodnymph" into two species (the other being Green-crowned Woodnymph Thalurania fannyi, found in Panama in the eastern Darién). The South American Classification Committee of the A.O.U. refers to colombica as "Purple-crowned Woodnymph", apparently based on a nomenclatural choice by a later authority (I haven't found the source in question). I find it a bit odd that different committees within the same organization can't get it together, and in any case my understanding of the rules of nomenclature means that "Violet-crowned" has priority, so that's what I'll call this bird until I'm told otherwise! |
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