Rufous-Crested Coquettes

Nature 3 Minutes

The adult male’s forehead and crest, composed of quite rigid feathers, are cinnamon red. The back of their neck and most of the tops show a tan green color. A band varying from white to cinnamon blue crosses their upper rump. The central pair of rudders is dark bronze, the others are cinnamon-reddish with black tips. 

The feathers of their chin and throat show a yellowish green color with metallic shine, and have a cinnamon-rufous base that is most evident on the sides of their throat. The underparts are metallic bronze green, with the exception of a small white spot, located just below their throat.

Their irises are brown and their legs are grayish brown. The beak varies from red to reddish with a small grey or blackish spot on the tip depending on the subspecies. Central and South American breeds have a long crest and a reddish beak, while those of Mexico have a short, bushy crest and a blackish beak.

How do females differ from males?

Female rufous-crested coquettes differ from their partners in that they have no crest. Their forehead is dyed reddish while their throat has a reddish-cinnamon, white-cinnamon or white color. Small dark specks at the bottom of their throat sometimes form a transverse strip. The side rectrices have reddish tips and a wide black underground band. 

Central rudders are metallic green, just like the back. Belly and flanks are greyish brown and have no spots. The undertail coverts show a more or less pale cinnamon tone. Their beak has a darker tip than the male’s. Immature males resemble females, but their forehead, chin and upper throat vary from cinnamon red to opaque grey. As they get older, they acquire a crest of variable development.

Habitat

Rufous-crested coquettes live in humid or semi-humid forests with permanent leafy trees. They are also found on the edges of wooded areas and in clearings, even in mixed pine and hardwood forests, as well as in semi-deciduous stands. They tolerate highly degraded areas. Moreover, they live mainly in heights ranging from 1000 to 1500 meters. Outside the breeding season, they probably descend to lower altitudes.

Behavior

Rufous-crested coquettes often perch prominently on a well-exposed branch. When in flight, they move their tail up and down like true hummingbirds. Because of the band that covers their rump, these coquettes are often mistaken for moths, and more particularly, with sphinxes of the genus Aellopus, which have a similar size. 

Coquettes have a solitary lifestyle, except during the breeding season. These birds are sedentary, but they wander in search of places with abundant and small flowers. They are often forced to move because they are too small to compete with some species of hummingbirds.

Diet

These birds find their food in 3 different sources: they feed mainly on the nectar found in the small aromatic flowers of trees, grasses, shrubs or epiphytes. These usually have vibrant colors, tubular shape and contain a high energy content. 

In Central America, coquettes are attracted to legumes of the genus Inga. These trees are often used for shade in coffee and cocoa crops. They also visit the cecropias found in secondary forests, although these produce mainly pollen and little nectar. 

These hummingbirds occasionally visit artificial feeders, hoping to find sweet juices there. They also catch spiders and insects that are an important resource during the nesting period due to its high protein content.

Nesting

Coquettes do not establish marriage ties. In an attempt to seduce a partner, the male performs an air show, in which they make a “U” flight in front of her. After copulation, they cease all relationships and do not participate in various tasks, such as nest construction or feeding of young. They return to their courtship activities and try to mate with a new female. 

The female builds a cup-shaped nest that ties a web to a horizontal branch of a tree, between 6 and 25 meters above the ground. The laying usually consists of 1 or 2 white eggs, whose weight does not exceed 3 grams. 

The female incubates alone, probably for 12 or 13 days. Chicks are born naked and blind, depending entirely on their mother to take care of them for the first few days. This heats them for the first 2 weeks and then the mother leaves them after 12 days. Finally, the chicks leave the nest about 20 days after hatching.

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Published by pat frederick

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99 thoughts on “Rufous-Crested Coquettes”

    1. Morning, Pat! Still above 40 here, thankfully. It was still raining when I got up – as soon as I turned the light on and stepped out with Wheezer’s food dish, he jumped thru the doggie door, slightly damp….waiting for me, I guess.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Last month, Muslim group CAIR and various influencers made a story go viral about a Muslim man in Ohio who said he was seriously injured by a car driven by a person who screamed “Kill all Palestinians” and “Long live Israel.” Northridge Police investigated & determined it was a hate crime hoax. They say they found surveillance footage showing he actually was injured in a fight with his brother. Hesham Ayyad (the alleged hoaxer) & Khalil Ayyad have been charged with domestic violence and assault. Hesham is additionally charged with falsification, making false alarms & obstructing official business. Muslim Americans have long been involved in numerous high-profile hate crime allegations that turned out to be hoaxes, especially since Trump was elected. #HateHoax https://twitter.com/CAIRNational/status/1716568332223045874

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Tom Homan
    @RealTomHoman
    “I promised President Trump when he announced that if he goes back, I go back. And I’m going to run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen because these millions of people being released in this country, nine out of 10 will get an order of removal based on immigration court data.

    A judge orders them to be removed. We’re going to find them and we’re gonna remove them,” he added. “If there’s no consequence, we can’t fix the border. We’re going to have a consequence in the Trump administration.”
    -Tom Homan

    Liked by 2 people

        1. Trump kind of had him over a barrel since he was there serving turkey dinner to the border patrol! I debunked this at M’s a long time ago.

          Liked by 1 person

  13. Cactus
    November 20, 2023 6:44 am

    Note: If you haven’t contacted the Omega4America team to help you delouse the voter rolls in your county, you are behind scheduled. If you are MAGA, the state and local entities are your responsibility. Get the ball rolling.
    ______________________________________

    “This week the Fractal team started our 24th state comparison of property tax rolls with the voter rolls – the results are astounding!

    If you cannot cross search property rolls, you cannot clean voter rolls. Period.

    We are finding streets, in one state, cities, that literally do not exist – but are on voter rolls, with thousands of FAKE voters.

    24 state teams, working with their legislators, building a real time view of their voter rolls cross searched against property rolls and FEC and other government rolls!

    We created a video of several Georgia counties we are posting soon. You will see Fractal at work at Georgia counties – showing extraordinary detail on anomalies in that state’s voter rolls.

    We show videos from every current state showing the power of cross search with property tax records as the teams make them available. In addition to property tax records, we added several national government databases.

    Previously we were accepting data for only one or two counties in each state for the cross compares. We are now taking ALL counties – in every state!

    Recent funding and some incredible Fractal innovation enable us to ingest the property tax records for all 3,200 U.S. counties. Contact us and we will bring your county into the mix.

    We have documents created by the FracPack (current state users) showing how to gather the appropriate data. County assessors are working with us across the country to build the database.

    In two cases, they asked if we could replace their current obsolete SQL system!

    Send us an email via Omega4America.com and we will send out the dox to get you started.

    We now have one Unites States Senator, two state legislatures and a huge Republican think tank going with Fractal.

    Let’s get all the data – for every state – every U.S. county and build the world’s largest address database – cross searched with A.I. technology at 200 million transactions per second.

    This will be a national resource to clean voter rolls, all government rolls and finally give citizens transparency to their official, public records.

    Regards,

    Jay
    Omega4America.com

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Sorry but this isn’t true. He used his planes to ferry troops within the southern US states. I debunked this a long time ago at M’s.

    Like

  18. video in tweet

    Wall Street Apes
    @WallStreetApes
    This Is Crazy. The Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young, Doesn’t Know What Causes Inflation. How Do These People Get Their Jobs?

    Young “Sure the cost of goods are more expensive. It costs more for the same goods than it did last year. The president is very aware of that. That is why it called on Congress to send him legislation that reduced the cost of health care.”

    Rep Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert
    ) “That’s not exactly where I was getting at. Let me answer this for you. So Milton Freeman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics, said that inflation comes from too much money being printed in DC. Specifically, and I quote, he said, is a result of too much money and more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output. Moreover, in the modern Era, the important next step to recognize that today, governments control the quantity of money so that as a result, inflation in the United States is made in Washington and nowhere else. So Director Young, in short, inflation comes from Washington, DC, where the products we use aren’t created, but the products we use are made more expensive.

    Director Young, shamefully, this Biden budget proposes the largest tax increase in American history. And I really think that that bears repeating. It is the largest in American history. The Biden regime either has no concept of how inflation is impacting Americans or simply has no concept for Americans who find the cost of gasoline too expensive because after all they can’t just go buy a Tesla. How about that for Democrat priorities? Thank you, Madam Director.”

    Liked by 1 person

  23. “Raw swanage just pouring into the water…..”

    “Dolly Llama” [NF: Nope – IDK!]


    “You’re gonna need a bigger gun…”

    Liked by 2 people

  27. not reading the article–I saw the first few lines–what’s she’s learned from her father (LURCH) and whether she’d ever run for president (she can kiss my ass on that one) and she is “demanding” action on climate change? who the bloody hell do YOU THINK YOU ARE to demand ANYTHING?
    arrogant much?

    https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eFc8bR2jdHUJ:https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/16/like-father-like-daughter-why-vanessa-kerry-is-demanding-action-on-climate-and-health&hl=en&gl=us

    Liked by 1 person

  30. okay…gotta vent…my feelings won’t get hurt if anyone scrolls on by…LOL

    doing a lot of cleaning since company is coming tomorrow evening–and tomorrow I am baking the pies and cooking the turkey. (i’ll cook the turkey breast on Wednesday.)
    so i ask hubby when he’s going to clean out the wood stove–what day does he pick? TOMORROW!
    dang it! I said you know that whenever you do that there’s ash in the air that’s gonna settle everywhere making my cleaning today MUTE.
    his response–then don’t clean!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND he said…I need a haircut–when you can you do that?
    if I drank, I’d be drunk now…
    MEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  37. she, 40 at the time, dated her 15 year old student and they got married.
    25 YEAR DIFFERENCE…macron and his OLD lady…lol
    FTA
    “Of course, we have breakfast together, me and my wrinkles, him with his youth, but it’s like that,” Macron told Elle at the time. “If I did not make that choice, I would have missed out on my life. I had a lot of happiness with my children and, at the same time, felt I had to live ‘this love’ as Prevert used to say, to be fully happy.”

    https://www.foxnews.com/world/macrons-wife-admits-head-was-mess-when-she-dated-her-high-school-aged-ex-pupil

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Yep, everyone jumped on board….this alone isn’t necessarily disqualifying – Ivanka attended their Young Leaders program as well as many others but it’s one piece of the puzzle.

        Liked by 1 person

  40. TheseTruths
    TheseTruths(@thesetruths)Online
    Wolf
    November 20, 2023 16:12

    Charlie Kirk:

    The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has struck a devastating blow against the left’s racket to make election integrity borderline illegal.

    For decades, random citizens have been allowed to sue state or local governments to throw out voter ID, signature verification, or other election practices that supposedly constitute “discrimination.” This law has encouraged well-funded groups to sue every government, however minor, that has any election security measures. Many jurisdictions fear passing any laws at all because they don’t want to deal with the legal costs and hassle.

    The left has built a massive apparatus led by Marc Elias to outsource all its election lawsuits. Now, the 8th Circuit says this racket is illegal throughout its jurisdiction, which includes the swing states of Iowa and Minnesota.

    Marc Elias is fuming. He calls it the most dramatic change to election laws in half a century. His group, Democracy Docket, calls it “catastrophic.”

    The tide is shifting. 2024 is not 2020. We can win — and the left is starting to panic.

    Liked by 1 person

  43. she must on some primo drugs…we need to fund ukraine’s gov’t? school teachers? the economy is doing “extremely well”??????
    FTA
    “We can’t allow Ukraine to lose a battle on the home front because it lacks enough money to keep schoolteachers in the classroom and first responders on the job, when it’s fighting valiantly on the battlefield. Ukraine is utterly dependent on this aid,” she said.

    Yellen then made the case that the Ukraine-Russia conflict is of importance for U.S. national security.

    “This aid is critical to the national security of America. If Putin were to win this brutal war in Ukraine, next we might see him attacking a NATO ally of ours,” she said. “We need to stop this.”

    Last month, Yellen was asked whether the U.S. can afford another war given its precarious fiscal position. National debt has skyrocketed past $33 trillion, and rising interest rates now have the debt increasing by about $1 trillion every three months.

    But that’s not a problem, according to Yellen.

    “Absolutely, American can afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs. And we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,” said Yellen, who is Jewish.

    In the same interview, the Treasury Secretary also claimed that “the American economy is doing extremely well.” Her comment was made on the heels of a higher-than-expected inflation report.

    https://headlineusa.com/treasury-secretary-essential-for-u-s-to-fund-ukrainian-school-teachers/

    Liked by 1 person

  45. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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