Green-crowned Brilliant, Heliodoxa jacula


Green-crowned Brilliant
A beautiful hummer of the west Andean slope and lowlands, "mostly 500-1550m," the male showing a glittering green forehead, a small violet-blue patch on the throat, and a white post-ocular spot.


Green-crowned Brilliant



Green-crowned Brilliant



Green-crowned Brilliant
This female's bill is strikingly larger than those of the three males shown above (as well as being slightly decurved) which put me in doubt 
about the species identification. But of the other two Heliodoxa brilliants on the west slope, Fawn-breasted and Empress, Fawn-breasted would show coppery bronze on the bend of the wing rather than the green seen here, and Empress's habitat is described as "mostly 1500-2100m," so would be well out of range at 1000m Milpe. Neither would show the white tips to the tail feathers evident in this picture. I'm left still in doubt because the bill size discrepancy seems so great, but perhaps individual variation within the species can be as wide as this. Comments welcome.