Fawn-breasted Brilliant, Heliodoxa rubinoides
The text on this species in the Ridgely and Greenfield field guide mistakenly states
that the sexes are alike (p.270). The illustrations in the same book (Plate 43[14])
show the sex differences evident in these photos: the female, below, lacks the
pinkish throat patch, and has a white malar stripe as well as the postocular spot
shared with the male, above. The top two pictures were taken at the Paz refuge
(4600 feet); the bottom one in the Tandayapa Valley (5000 feet).
The female below has a solid green head like the male, unlike the largely brown head of the (younger?) female above; both lack the pinkish throat patch, and show the malar stripe. Both also show the feature described in Ridgely and Greenfield as characteristic of west slope birds of this species, "coppery bronze on bend of wing and greater wing-coverts."
