Rufous-crested Coquette

About the Rufous-crested Coquette

The rufous-crested coquette (Lophornis delattrei) is a species of hummingbird native to the tropical slopes of pacific South America. Due to its small size and population, it is a rare sight even within its native region. Males of the species can be easily distinguished by their striking rufous coloured spiked crests, and females, while less obvious, can be identified by their small size and rufous coloured foreheads.

The rufous-crested coquette is a bird in the family Trochilidae, which includes all extant species of hummingbirds. It is a member of the genus Lophornis, which was identified first by the French naturalist and surgeon René Lesson in 1829, and includes a number of extremely small hummingbirds distributed across central and south America. The rufous-crested coquette was identified by Lesson in 1839, and is thought to be closely related to the tufted coquette.

An extremely similar species of coquette is endemic to a small region of Guerrero Mexico. This bird's taxonomic classification is debated, and some ornithologists list it as the independent coquette species Lophornis brachylophus, but has also been classified as a subspecies of the rufous... Wikipedia →