Endangered
Black-breasted puffleg
Eriocnemis nigrivestis
Black-breasted puffleg is a bird in the family Trochilidae (order Apodiformes) — Eriocnemis nigrivestis, recorded as Endangered and tied to Ecuador.
Appearance
The female is bronze-green above, bluish-green on rump and uppertail-coverts, golden-green underparts and a pale blue chin. Both sexes have a straight black bill, a forked tail and white pufflegs, from that the common name is derived. Fledglings are sexually dimorphic similar to adults, but with duller coloring and red-orange color on the lower part of the bill.
The species reaches a length of 8–9 cm.
Range and habitat
The black-breasted puffleg is endemic to north-western Ecuador, where it currently appears restricted to the ridge crests of the Pichincha Volcano, the Cordillera de Toisán, Esmeraldas and Imbabura. Based on possible sightings in 1983 and 2010, it may still occur on Atacazo. The species occurs in humid and wet cloud and montane forest at altitudes of 1,700–3,500 m.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Breeding occurs between November and April. Males establish territories and perform courtship displays.
Courtship consists of vertical flights by the male and female, where they join bodies 25-30 meters in the air. The nest is a cup-like shape built above ground in a well-protected area, made of moss, spider webs, and fine fibers.
In crisis
It is Endangered, with an estimated 100–150 individuals remaining in the wild. The species is classified as Endangered by the IUCN based on its restricted range and extremely low population numbers. A 2020 assessment estimated a total number of 100–150 individuals.
Although the black-breasted puffleg has recently been rediscovered in small populations outside its main range on the Pichincha volcano, its total area of occurrence is estimated as 100 km2. Of the habitat in its original range, 93–97% are considered to have been degraded or destroyed by agricultural expansion, logging and cattle grazing, and these practices remain the main threats to the species, together with natural and human-induced fires.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Black-breasted puffleg is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Black-breasted puffleg, Wikidata item Q1272867. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
