Red-footed Plumeleteer

The Red-footed Plumeleteer (Chalybura urochrysia) is a large hummingbird that is a resident breeder from eastern Honduras to northwestern Ecuador. It is also known as the Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, but the Costa Rican subspecies C. u. melanorrhoa has a black, not bronze, tail.

This hummingbird inhabits forests, but has a preference for edges, gaps and second growth. It occurs in the Caribbean lowlands, typically up to an elevation of 700 m.

The nest is a deep cup of plant fibres less than 1.5 m high in a small shrub. The female alone incubates the two white eggs.

The Red-footed Plumeleteer is 11 cm long and weighs 6 g (female) or 7 g (male). The male has bronze-green upperparts, glittering green underparts, a dusky lower belly and a bronzed or purple-black tail depending on subspecies. The female has bronze-green upperparts, grey underparts, including the lower belly, green speckling on the flanks and grey corners to the dusky bronze tail. Both sexes have pink or red feet. Young birds resemble the adult, but have buff feather tips to the head, neck and rump feathers.

The Red-footed Plumeleteer has a high metallic chip call, and the male’s song is a soft ter-pleeleeleelee ter-pleeleeleelee ter-pleeleeleelee ter-pleee.

This hummingbird is aggressive, territorial, and usually dominant. The male will defend large clumps of Heliconia and other large flowers.