Distinct from every other genus are the two species of Oxypogon. These bearded birds stand quite alone among the Trochilidæ; and although not remarkable for brilliancy of colour, their fantastic markings, towering crests, and lengthened beards render them very conspicuous objects. I shall not be surprised if other species of this form be discovered when the higher peaks of the great Andean range of mountains have been more closely examined.
For a long time the Oxypogon Guerini was the only species known; but in the year 1842 the intrepid traveller Mons. J. Linden ascended the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Merida, and was rewarded by the discovery of the second species, which bears his name.
Generic characters.
Male.— Bill shorter than the head, feeble, and straight; face both above and below ornamented with lengthened: plumes, the former erect, the latter pendent; wings rather long; tail large and forked when closed; tarsi bare; feet large and strong; hind toe and nail longer than the middle toe and nail.
Female.—Smaller, and destitute of the ornamental face-plumes.
Oxypogon Guerini
Habitat: New Granada; plentiful around Bogot
Plate 182
Oxypogon Guerini
Guerin’s Helmet-crest
Oxypogon Lindeni (The Sierra Nevada de Merida in New Granada)
Plate 183
Oxypogon Lindeni
Linden’s Helmet-crest
“This bird,” says M. Linden, “inhabits the regions immediately beneath the line of perpetual congelation, and never at a less elevation than 9000 feet.” It might be thought that such bleak and inclement situations were ill adapted for so delicate a structure as that of the Humming-Bird; but there, and there only, does it dwell, while the equally lofty Paramos of Bogota are the native locality of the allied species O. Guerini. The minute insects which frequent the alpine flora of these districts afford abundance of food to these birds; and beautifully constructed are their little bills for searching among the flowers in which they are found.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds
