Snowy-bellied Hummingbird

How to find it

Look in gardens, where it is usually seen, and along forest edges and clearings in the southern Pacific lowlands and foothills. Scan exposed twigs and fences, because it often perches in the open. Flowering gardens are a good bet, since it is a regular visitor there. Early morning is a good time where fruit and flowers draw it in, and on one southern tour the birds came reliably to a verbena hedge. Listen for the sharp, short tsip call. Check the quieter visitors at flowers rather than only the bigger hummingbirds.

How to recognise it

Start with the belly, then work outward. These are the marks to look for:

Throat and chest: glittering green.

Belly: a white centre shaped like a V.

Undertail feathers: rufous.

Bill: straight and blackish, with a reddish base on the lower half.

Size: males weigh about 5 to 5.4 g and females 4.3 to 5.2 g, and body length is 8 to 11 cm. A Costa Rican source gives about 9 cm and 4.6 g.

The Costa Rican form, niveoventer, has a tail that is blue-black to purplish black, and it is slightly larger than the Panamanian nominate form. Green reaches onto its sides and flanks, so the contrast between white belly and green breast is less sharp than in the Panamanian forms. Even so, the clean white belly against the green chest is enough to identify the species within its range.

Behaviour and diet

It eats nectar and small insects, visiting the flowers of shrubs and trees, and between feeding bouts it often sits openly. It is quiet and less aggressive than flashier hummingbirds, so it can slip by unnoticed.

Numbers in the areas where it lives change with the seasons, which probably follows when flowers are available. A singing male may not be at the flowers at all, since males sing from inside trees or shrubs.

In the western part of its range, breeding runs from September to January, with most nesting in December and January. The nest is a small cup of downy fibres, covered with lichens and moss, set on a branch or in a fork of a bush or small tree, up to about 9 m above the ground.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica and western Panama it favours semi-open places: brushy savanna, forest edges, clearings, secondary forest, coffee plantations and gardens. That makes it a bird of open and edge habitat rather than deep forest.

In Costa Rica it lives only in the southwest, mostly on the Pacific slope in lowlands and foothills, and the range continues into Panama. Across its whole range it occurs from sea level up to about 1,600 m (5,200 ft). One photo was taken at Mirador Valle del General in San José province, in the southern Pacific foothills.

Similar birds

The Blue-vented Hummingbird, the Costa Rican Saucerottia of the dry northwest, has a green belly and a dark blue tail. The Snowy-bellied is the one with the clean white belly, and it lives in the southwest. The Mangrove Hummingbird also has a green back and white belly, but it has a bronzy green tail where the Snowy-bellied has a black one, and the two are said not to overlap in range.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican lists give the Spanish name Colibrí Vientriblanco, with the local nickname Gurrión (older lists write Gorrión). Amazilia vientriblanca is also recorded as a Costa Rican name, and the name Gorrión suits a bird with a green chest and a white belly.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it R-END, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, with at least 50,000 mature birds and a population believed stable.

Photography tips

It often perches in the open on twigs or fences and is usually seen in gardens, which makes it a cooperative subject. Because it is quiet and less aggressive, it can be overlooked next to flashier hummingbirds, so scan the less showy visitors at flowers and be ready for a bird sitting still between feeding bouts.