Plain-capped Starthroat

Heliomaster constantiiOrder: APODIFORMES Family: Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Codes: Common Name: PCST Scientific Name: HELCON ITIS Taxonomic No.: 178088

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Plain-capped Starthroat Breeding Male Portrait

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Plain-capped Starthroat

Plain-capped Starthroat: Medium-sized hummingbird with iridescent bronze-green upperparts and head, red throat, white face interrupted by black eyestripe, and pale gray underparts. Slightly notched tail is bronze-green with white-tipped black terminal band. Direct and hovering flight.

● Song: "chip", "peeek"

● Foraging & Feeding: Plain-capped Starthroat: Eats insects and nectar; forages by catching insects in mid-air and hover-gleaning insects high in the canopy.

● Breeding & nesting: Plain-capped Starthroat: Two white eggs are laid in a nest made of plant down, lichens, and bits of bark, and built on a branch tip at the forest edge or in a savanna. Incubation ranges from 16 to 19 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Plain-capped Starthroat: Blue-throated Hummingbird has blue-gray underparts, dark blue tail with bold white tip, blue throat (gray in female). Magnificent Hummingbird has black breast and belly and purple crown; female has green tail with pale gray tips on outer feathers.

Flight Pattern

Direct and hovering flight with very rapid wing beats.

Plain-capped Starthroat Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Plain-capped Starthroat: Casual to rare visitor to the U.S. in southeast Arizona; common in Mexico. Preferred habitats include tropical deciduous forests, cottonwood-willow streamside forests, and oak woodlands.

^BreedingSolitary nester

^PopulationCasual to rare

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight0.2 Ounces

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America