After visiting the Amagusa Preserve in Mashpi, my bird guide, Julia, suggested we walk down the dirt road to look for birds until we reached what turned out to be the apparently very fancy Mashpi Lodge, with a huge barrier across the road and a large locked gate. Our driver picked us up and we started back up the road, when Julia suddenly told the driver to stop and Julia jumped out of the vehicle. There was a small waterfall coming down the side of the mountain and Julia told me there was a hummingbird standing on a branch in front of it. I couldn't see it and edged closer and closer to the waterfall until I finally saw it. How she saw it I'll never know.
The green-fronted lancebill has a glittering green patch of feathers on its forehead, which my photo does not show well, and a very long straight bill which is the "lance." Overall it has a "drab gray-green breast and belly" and a "coppery patch extends from the nape and down along the sides of the neck." The back and tail are a rich green that alternates in the light between green, teal and turquoise. It also has a very tiny white patch just to the back of the eye. Its distribution covers the cloud forest region of Ecuador and Colombia and goes as far south as Bolivia and as far north as Costa Rica. Research and conservation for this hummingbird are minimal, but it is rated of "least concern" by the IUCN.
So how big was it? What is something of comparable size?
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