White necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora)

[order] Apodiformes | [family] Trochilidae | [latin] Florisuga mellivora | [UK] White-necked Jacobin | [FR] Colibri jacobin | [DE] Weissnackenkolibri | [ES] Colibri Nuquiblanco | [IT] Succhiafiori collobianco | [NL] Witnekkolibrie

Subspecies

Physical charateristics

The 12 cm long male White-necked Jacobin is unmistakable with its white belly and tail, a white band on the nape and a dark blue hood. Females and the similar immature males are bronze-green above and are less obvious. Their speckled green underparts and white tail tips are shared with the female Green-crowned Brilliant, but that species has a white moustachial stripe and a straighter bill. Some young Andean Emerald have speckling extending across their breast, but it is never as heavy as in the White-necked Jacobin. The black and white scaling on the vent of the Jacobin is a good field mark.

Listen to the sound of White-necked Jacobin

[audio:http://www.aviflevoland.nl/sounddb/W/White-necked Jacobin.mp3]

Copyright remark: Most sounds derived from xeno-canto

Range

The White-necked Jacobin ranges from Mexico south to Peru, Bolivia and south Brazil. It is also found on Tobago and in Trinidad, but breeding has not been proved on the latter island. In Suriname common in light forest in the coastal plane, savanna and interior.

Habitat

The White-necked Jacobin is a widespread inhabitant of forest, mostly at higher elevations, being seen usually at a high perch or just above the canopy. It is less common at lower elevations.

Reproduction

Breeds during dry to early wet seasons between January and July in Costa Rica and Panama; between February and May in northwest Colombia, June and November in east Colombia. Nest is a rather shallow soft cup of light-colored plant down and cobweb on flat upper surface of broad leaf of understory palm, often sheltered from above by another such leaf, 1-3 meter above ground, sometimes near a stream. No further data.

Feeding habits

Feeds high in flowering trees, including Inga, Vochysia, Erythrina, Bauhinia, and Symphonia, epiphytes, shrubs, and Heliconia along edges and in clearings. Hawks for insects for long periods, hovering and darting high above streams and clearings or sallying from tree-top perches.

Conservation

This species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of 8,100,000 km2. The global population size has not been quantified, but it is believed to be large as the species is described as ‘frequent’ in at least parts of its range (Stotz et al. 1996). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Migration

Sedentary throughout range

Distribution map