The
empress brilliant is a Choco-endemic hummingbird, that is, it is only found in the cloud forest on the west side of the Andes in Ecuador and Colombia.
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| Empress brilliant distribution from Wikipedia. |
It is thick-billed, long-tailed, emerald-green with a yellow sheen on its belly, and the male has a violet throat patch, while the female has white on its throat and breast. Both Wikipedia and
eBird only have a paragraph on it and eBird reports 10,697 observations and 752 photos.
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| Emerald green, violet throat patch and yellow belly. |
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| With a velvet purple coronet to the left, another Choco endemic hummingbird. |
We saw several of them at Amagusa Reserve in Mashpi and my friend Terry had a number of them land on his hand.
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| A velvet purple coronet is to the right. |
This is a beautiful bird, but every time I read "choco endemic" I am hoping for one that looks like chocolate. I guess I should give up on that, right?
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