Long-billed Hermit

About the Long-billed Hermit

The long-billed hermit (Phaethornis longirostris) is a bird in the family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds. It is found from central Mexico south through Central America, Colombia and Ecuador into Peru. It has often been considered conspecific with what is now the long-tailed hermit, P. superciliosus, which is found east of the Andes. The two populations were called the western and eastern long-tailed hermits; the "eastern" was dropped after the split into two species and the renaming of the western population.

The South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy assign these four subspecies to the long-billed hermit:

P. l. longirostris Delattre (1843) P. l. cephalus Bourcier & Mulsant (1848) P. l. susurrus Bangs (1901) P. l. baroni Hartert (1897) However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats P. l. baroni as a separate species, "Ecuadorian hermit". The SACC in 2006 had rejected that treatment. Other subspecies within longirostrus and cephalus have been proposed but have not been accepted. Wikipedia →