About the Santa Marta Woodstar
The Santa Marta woodstar is a species of hummingbird in tribe Mellisugini of subfamily Trochilinae, the "bee hummingbirds". It is endemic to Colombia.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
ID tip
The Santa Marta woodstar is about 7 cm (2.8 in) long. Both sexes have a straight black bill. The male's head is shiny green and the rest of the upperparts dark shiny bluish. It has a reddish gorget that extends across the neck. The breast is gray and the belly bluish with a white spot on the flanks. The tail is forked, with very short central feathers and outer ones that are bare shafts. The female is bronzy green above and pale cinnamon-rufous below with a dark cheek patch and, like the male, a white spot on the flanks. Voice: The Santa Marta woodstar's vocalizations have seldom been recorded. What is possibly its song is "a regularly repeated, single, modulated squeaky note." It makes "a series of single liquid 'tsit' notes or a doubled 'ti-tsit'" calls while hovering or feeding.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where it lives
When to see it
Peak activity in December · a variable species across most of its range
Easily confused with
Little WoodstarChaetocercus bombusThe little woodstar is 6 to 7 cm (2.4 to 2.8 in) long.
Rufous-shafted WoodstarChaetocercus jourdaniiThe rufous-shafted woodstar is 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) long.
Esmeraldas WoodstarChaetocercus berlepschiAt only about 6 centimeters long, Esmeraldas woodstars are among the smallest species of hummingbird.
Learn the Santa Marta Woodstar for real
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