Tooth-billed Hummingbird Androdon aequatorialis Scientific name definitions

The Tooth-billed Hummingbird is endemic to the humid lowland and foothills of the Choco, from northwestern Ecuador to southeastern Panama. Though hummingbird bills, in general, are very diverse in size and shape, few are structurally modified in other ways. The Tooth-billed Hummingbird derives its name from its straight bill that has a prominent hooked tip and backward-pointing tooth-like serrations on the distal half. This modification is absent on the female bill, and thus may be related to sexual selection. More plausible, though not necessarily mutually exclusive, is that this distinctive bill morphology, found in 27 other hummingbird genera, is an adaptation for nectar robbing of flowers with inaccessible nectar, an adaptation convergent with Flowerpiercers (Diglossa).

13·2–14·2 cm (including 4 cm of bill); male 9 g, female 5·5–7 g (1 Robbins, M. B., T. A. Parker, and S. E. Allen (1985). The avifauna of Cerro Pirre, Darién, eastern Panama. Ornithological Monographs 36:198–232. Close ). Male has straight bill with hooked tip, distal half or less with backward-pointing tooth-like serrations, black above, yellow below tipped dark; forehead sooty brown, crown metallic reddish ­copper, back green, rump reddish copper, tail-coverts dull greenish blue, bordered above by a narrow white band; underparts greyish, sides of head, throat and breast broadly streaked black; tail rounded, greyish green, with dark subterminal band and broad white tips. Female like male, but lacks hook on bill, duller on crown, less heavily streaked below. Immature has crown and nape greenish blue, coppery band on rump small or lacking.

Extreme E Panama (E Darién) and W Colombia (Chocó) S to NW Ecuador (to W Pichincha).

Song a high-pitched, continuously repeated phrase, usually of three notes, “tsi-tsee-tsek...tsi-tsee-tsek...” with emphasis on the second, given often at lek consisting of several males. Call while feeding or in flight is a repeated, short, rather buzzy “tzek”.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). CITES II. Common resident of undisturbed primary forest, with densities of at least 3–5 individuals/km². Seems to have disappeared in parts of SW Colombia (N & W Buenaventura) due to extensive logging; present in Río Nambi Reserve (Pasto area) and Río Canande Reserve, in adjacent Ecuador.