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Snowcap Microchera albocoronata Scientific name definitions

Ethan Kistler and Thomas S. Schulenberg
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated April 5, 2013

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Introduction

Snowcap is a spectacular, tiny hummingbird of Central American cloud forests. The male is black overall, but with a unique purple or bronze iridescence on the upperparts. Its namesake white crown is brilliant and constrasts sharply with the dark body plumage. The female is less spectacular, but the combination of small size, green upperparts, clean white underparts, and extensive white in the outer rectrices contrasting with a dark terminal tail band is distinctive. This species feeds at all strata in humid montane evergreen forests from southern Honduras south to central Panama. Males sing from small leks at the edge of the forest during the breeding season.

Distribution of the Snowcap - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Snowcap

Recommended Citation

Kistler, E. and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Snowcap (Microchera albocoronata), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.snowca1.01
Birds of the World

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