Sword-billed Hummingbird, Ensifera ensifera
"This amazing hummingbird can never be seen often enough." Thus say Ridgely and Grandfield in their magisterial Birds of Ecuador, as well they might of this longest-billed of the hummingbirds, its bill nearly as long as its body. They add: "Perched birds rest with the bill sharply upraised, as if to balance its excessive length." The bird is found high in the Andes; I photographed this one in Yanacocha Preserve, on the outskirts of Quito at nearly 10,000 feet.
