Hummingbird of Helene

The hummingbird of Helene ( Mellisuga helenae ) is tiny. With an overall length from 5 to 6 cm and a weight from 1,6 to 1,9 gram, the male of this is smallest of all the Oiseau X.

This name was given to him in the honor of Helene Booth, the wife of a friend of Juan Gundlach (1810-1896), celebrates German naturalist who remained during several years in Cuba.

The adult male with the head and the red throat étincelant, and an iridescent collar with the lengthened side feathers. The remainder of its plumage is bluish top and white grisâtre below. It with the slightly indented tail. The female, a little larger than the male, is green top and blanchâtre below. The side feathers of its round tail have the white end. The immature one is similar to the female.

This hummingbird lives in wood, the marshes, the solid masses of shrubs and the gardens; one meets it on the occasion in opened enough medium, but it generally has need for vegetation mature with a tangle bulky of lianas and rich in épiphyte S.

It nourishes mainly nectar. It takes also small insects; the young people left only with the nest when the female left to feed capture and eat the small insects which come to their range.

The Hummingbird of Helene niche from March to June. Its nest is generally placed at an average height of 3,50 m on a fine branch; it is composed of dry vegetable fibers, is furnished internally with vegetable wool and is decorated outside lichens. Usually, it is partially dissimulated by the foliage which overhangs it; its construction, by the female alone, lasts ten days. The laying is composed of two eggs, laid at one day of interval. Incubation takes 21 or 22 days. The young people, red dark and naked, hatch with a one day shift; they are nourished and brooded by the female. The young people are completely emplumés at the age of 13 or 14 days, and involve themselves then with the flight during 4 or 5 days; they leave the nest at approximately the 18 days age.

This hummingbird lives with Cuba and on the island of the Pines. It is thought that in general it is sedentary, although erratic individuals were seen in Providenciales (Caicos islands) and the the Bahamas.

Its populations are in Net decline, probably because of losses of habitat, the species seeming very dependant on the mature forests. This bird met formerly everywhere in Cuba and on the island of the Pines, but would survive more currently only in some areas.

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