About Taphrospilus hypostictus (Gould, 1862)
The many-spotted hummingbird, Taphrospilus hypostictus (Gould, 1862), is 10.5 to 11.4 cm (4.1 to 4.5 in) long and weighs 6.7 to 9 g (0.24 to 0.32 oz). Both sexes have a slightly decurved black bill about 2.3 cm (0.91 in) long, and their plumage is very similar to one another. Adult individuals have grass green to coppery bronze upperparts and white underparts. Except for the central belly, the underparts are thickly spotted with green; females have somewhat less heavy spotting than males. The tail is blue-green, with dusky gray tips on each feather. Juveniles have the same coloration as adults, with the addition of buffy fringes on their head feathers.
The many-spotted hummingbird’s primary range extends along the eastern slope of the Andes from Ecuador’s Napo Province through eastern Peru into central Bolivia. It has also been officially documented in southern Colombia. The International Ornithological Committee includes Brazil within its range, and the Clements taxonomy includes Argentina within its range. However, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has no confirmed records of the species from Brazil, and only undocumented sight records exist from Argentina, leading the committee to list the species as hypothetical in Argentina. The many-spotted hummingbird lives in the interior and edges of humid foothill and subtropical forest, and it prefers small ravines. In terms of elevation, it mostly occurs between 400 and 1,500 m (1,300 and 4,900 ft), but has been found as high as 2,800 m (9,200 ft) in Peru. It is most numerous at around 600 m (2,000 ft).
