Black-bellied Thorntail

Male 12-13.7 cm, female 7.6 cm. Short straight black bill. The male"s crown is iridescent emerald green, the rest of the upperparts are coppery green with a white band across the rump: gorget iridescent emerald green, bordered by a golden coppery band: belly black: flanks bronze-green: tail long, forked, the outer rectrices narrow, the outer three pairs of rectrices gray, and the shafts of all rectrices white.<nThe female is like the male but the throat is white spangled green and black: small white malar streak: breast spangled green with a coppery lower border: belly black with white patch on flanks: tail short and forked, basally bronze, the rest steely blue tipped white. <nThe immature is similar to the female.

Makes popping noises during courtship flight ^30 .

Visits flowering trees for nectar and insects. Forages from above the understory to the canopy.

November - March.

Rare in borders of humid lowland forest, secondary forest. Sea level to 300 meters.

Mountains of the litoral. <8E>Boraceia ^119 .