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Flora and Fauna
Marvelous Spatuletail the most sought-after Hummingbird!
By Gunnar Engblom

The Marvelous Spatuletail Feeding. Photo by Luis Mazariegos.

Hummingbirds are the jewels of the birding world. Their common names often reflect precious stones or celestial bodies. There are brilliants, emeralds, jewelfronts, sunbeams, starthroats, mountain-gems, sunangels, sapphires, comets, woodstars, etc. Hummingbirds only occur in the Americas. From Alaska to Patagonia there are around 300 species of hummingbirds. They are among the most popular of the birds and in many places people put up feeders to attract the jewels to their gardens.

Peru - with around 100 different kinds of hummingbirds - is third after Colombia and Ecuador in the number of species. The most spectacular of these - and one with the potential to become a major tourist attraction - is the Marvelous Spatuletail (Loddigesia mirabilis). The male, with a brilliant metallic violet cap on his head and with two of the four tail feathers with violet rackets at the end of elongated curved shafts, is an incredible sight to experience. It looks as if the hummingbird is being chased by a resplendent butterfly when visiting one flower after the other. The males sometimes gather together in smaller areas called leks (display grounds), where they wait for a female to come by. When the female perches near a male, he flies out in front of her and performs something that may be described as the “swan lake ballet” of the hummingbirds, in which while in midair, it repeatedly lifts the rackets over its head.

Thusfar, the Marvelous Spatuletail is only known in Amazonas department, and is best searched for around Pomacochas. Here, since the mid-1990s, local kids have found a way to make some extra money guiding birdwatchers to fully plumaged males with rackets and sometimes even lek grounds. One such guide, Santos Montenegro, is now a young man who has become very concerned about the future of the Marvelous Spatuletail. In spite of its being a species that is uniquely endemic to Peru, nothing has been done to safeguard its existence. In fact it is listed as endangered as its habitat is rapidly being destroyed and converted to pastures for cattle.

To counteract this, Colombian hummingbird photographer Luis Mazariegos and Kolibri Expeditions, together with Santos, have started a fund to buy land where the Marvelous Spatuletail is found. The idea is to create a hummingbird reserve and facilitate visitors to see the Marvelous Spatuletail. Hummingbird feeders will not only attract the Marvelous Spatuletail, but also the Green Trainbearer, Emerald-bellied Puffleg, Chestnut-breasted Coronet, Sparkling Violetear and many other hummingbirds.

The purchase of 10 to 20 hectares of land near a road that would supply a future for the Marvelous Spatuletail would require 100 to 200 donors of only $50 to100 dollars each. For more information, please write to kolibriexp@telefonica.net.pe or visit Kolibri Expeditions at www.kolibriexpeditions.com

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