Purple-crowned Fairy

How to find it

Scan flowering trees and forest borders in the lowlands and foothills, because it usually feeds high, at flowers in the mid to upper levels of trees. The male's purple crown is often hard to see, so look instead for the white underparts and the flashing white tail edges. Watch flowers rather than feeders: one tour group found it did not visit feeders. Flowers beside a trail are a good bet, and one observer found a female at a flowering bean vine, where she kept darting around and was hard to photograph. Give it time and keep your eyes on the blooms.

How to recognise it

Look first at the belly: bright white, and no other Costa Rican hummingbird has fully white underparts. Above, the bird is metallic green.

The field marks, in short:

- a black bill that tapers to a needle-like point

- a dark eye mask

- a long, stepped tail with conspicuous white sides

- about 11.5 cm long, weighing about 5.6 g

Only the male has a small purple crown, and it is often hard to see, so do not rely on it. Females have a longer tail than males, with no violet or glittering green on the head, and their three outer tail feathers show a black band at the base. Young birds have rufous edging on the head and upper back.

Behaviour and diet

The fairy often fans and flips its long tail while hovering, which flashes the white outer feathers. That flash makes it easier to spot, even though it often stays high in the trees. Its flight is light and graceful.

It takes insects from leaves or catches them in flight, and it drinks nectar. It pierces the bases of larger flowers such as Heliconia. It does not defend a territory, but it is very aggressive and holds its own against attacks from more territorial hummingbird species.

Where it lives

The fairy lives in the canopy and edges of humid lowland forest, shady plantations and mature secondary forest. It also comes down to lower levels in partly cleared second growth and shady orchards, and it turns up in cacao plantations and old secondary forest.

In Costa Rica it ranges from sea level up to about 1,675 m. It is found over most of the Caribbean slope from the lowlands to 1,300 m, and on the south Pacific side north to Carara Biological Reserve. It is rare in the drier lowlands south of Lake Nicaragua and absent from the dry northwest.

When to see it

It usually breeds from October to March in Costa Rica, and some nesting continues to July, mostly on the Pacific slope. Tour reports show birds seen at Carara in January, February and March.

Similar birds

No other Costa Rican hummingbird has all-white underparts, so the white belly separates it from look-alikes. A green hummingbird with a clean white front and a long tail edged in white is very likely this one.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the bird is called Colibrí Picopunzón, and a Costa Rican natural history site also lists the plain names colibrí and gorrión for it. Spanish names vary by country: hada coronimorada in Honduras and Mexico, hada coronipúrpura in Panama and Ecuador, and espadachín enmascarado in Nicaragua. Picopunzón is used in Costa Rica and Colombia.

Status and conservation

AOCR lists it as a resident (R), and it is rated Least Concern worldwide, though the global population of no fewer than 50,000 birds is believed to be decreasing.

Photography tips

Look at flowering plants, not feeders. Near Arenal, one group saw the fairy only briefly at flowers. The nest is a small cone of plant down, usually 6 to 20 m up near the tip of a thin branch, often over water, so scanning over streams and forest edges can turn up nesting birds. One nest hung over a road on a tour and gave the group an easy look.