The nature’s most beautiful bird
is The Marvellous Spatuletail “Loddigesia Mirabilis” is just a 15cm long bird.
The medium size hummingbird adorned with different colors, white green and
bronze with blue crest feathers, and a brilliant turquoise gorget and black
line on its white underparts. The bird is sexually dimorphic and only member of
the monotypic genus Loddigesia. This bird can be found at the forest edges of
Rio Utcubamba region in Peru. This Peruvian endemic bird was first discovered
in 1835 by the bird collector Andrew Matthews for George Loddiges, after whom
the genus is named. The bird is extremely unique in just having four feathers
in its tail. However, male bird is having two long racquet-shaped outer tail
feathers that cross each other and end in large violet-blue discs or
“spatules”. The breeding season starts from late October to early May, which
coincides with rainy season.
The marvellous spatuletail is
unique among birds in having just four feathers in its tail. Its most
remarkable feature is the male's two long racquet-shaped outer tail feathers
that cross each other and end in large violet-blue discs or
"spatules". The marvellous spatuletail bird can move them
independently. The population of Marvellous Spatuletail in limited numbers and
it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The population is estimated to fall between
300 to 1000 mature individuals and equivalent to 375-1,499 individuals in
total, rounded here to 350-1,500 individuals. Another threat to this species is
hunting by locals, who believe that the male marvellous spatuletail’s heart is
an aphrodisiac and this may account for the skewed sex ratio in this species,
as adult males are habitually killed with slingshots and so are greatly
outnumbered by females and immature males.
The bird call has been described as
a thin, sweet, rising ‘wsst’, however displaying to the female the male
marvellous spatuletail produces a snapping sound. The Marvellous Spatuletail
has been featured in the PBS TV series Nature and the BBC TV. The BBC camera
team was also the first to record the male marvellous spatuletail hummingbird
displaying to a female, and his whole mating display from start to finish. The
male marvellous spatuletail displays to a female by hovering in front of her,
waving his tail feathers. Therefore, the courtship display of the male
Marvellous Spatuletail is so energetically demanding that it can only be
performed for very short periods. The Marvellous Spatuletail feeds consist on
nectar, red-flowered lily, Bomarea formosissima. This is a solitary bird for
most of the year, and moves around continually throughout the day, flying
through dense thickets faster and with greater maneuverability than other
hummingbirds.
Therefore, in 2006 American Bird
Conservancy provided support to protect and manage 100 acres of significant
habitat for jewel of this bird. They’ve planed more than 30,000 saplings of
native trees and bushes to increase the bird’s numbers, which is best of its in
Peru. The Marvellous Spatuletail hummingbird is among the rarest and striking
of birds and uncommon due to its extreme mating behavior. The bird body size is
slightly fluffy ping-pong ball, and beak in the size of matchstick. Source: Charismatic Planet
