Slender Sheartail

Common name: Slender Sheartail
Scientific name: Doricha enicura
Clades: Mellisugini - Bees

The hummingbird's insect-like wingbeats might be heard before the bird itself is seen. The male Slender Sheartail is green above with a pinkish throat and an extremely long forked tail. In contrast, females lack the impressively long tail and are buffy below with a dark stripe behind the eye. Slender Sheartails inhabit humid and semiarid scrub, forest openings, brush-filled second growth, and woodlands. They feed in the lower and middle strata, usually close to the ground. When feeding on nectar, males hold their tails closed in an almost vertical position, while females quickly wag their tails, opening and closing them.

The male Slender Sheartail measures 11–12.5 cm (including the long tail) and weighs 2.3 grams. The female measures 8–9 cm and weighs 2.6 grams. The male has a long, decurved black bill, green head and upperparts, a white postocular spot, a blackish chin, a pinkish purple gorget, a white band on the lower breast, and a green belly with a whitish center. Its very long tail is deeply forked with green central rectrices and blackish outer rectrices. The female has green upperparts with a white postocular spot, cinnamon-buff underparts, a blackish ear-coverts stripe, and a shorter, less forked tail with green central rectrices and outer rectrices that are cinnamon with broad blackish bands and white tips. Juveniles resemble females.