{"id":249882,"date":"2026-02-10T21:25:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fauna\/green-torntail-female\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T16:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:33:42","slug":"green-torntail-female","status":"publish","type":"fauna","link":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/faune-2\/green-torntail-female\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Torntail (female)"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discosura conversii<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":265309,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":""},"collection":[],"country":[11],"fauna-group":[27488],"fauna-type":[27217],"star-rating":[],"class_list":["post-249882","fauna","type-fauna","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","country-colombia","fauna-group-hummingbirds","fauna-type-birds"],"acf":{"scientific_name":"Discosura conversii","animal_description":"The female Green Torntail (*Discosura conversii*) is a tiny, captivating hummingbird native to the humid forest canopies of Central and South America, distinguished by its subtle elegance and remarkable agility. While it lacks the dramatic, elongated tail streamers of the male, the female is easily identified by a striking white band across its rump and its bronzy-green upperparts that shimmer in the light. Its underparts are predominantly dark grayish-green, accented by a white moustachial stripe and delicate white spotting on the breast. Often mistaken for a large bee due to its diminutive size and hovering flight pattern, this bird features a short, notched tail tipped with white, a unique characteristic that aids in its identification among the dense foliage. Despite its small stature, the female Green Torntail is a hardy nectar-feeder, often seen darting through the high canopy with a precision that makes it a true gem of the tropical rainforest.","animal_habitat":"This species is distributed across the humid lowlands and foothills of Central and South America, with a range extending from Costa Rica and Panama southward through western Colombia to western Ecuador. It primarily inhabits the canopy and edges of wet evergreen forests, as well as adjacent semi-open areas and tall secondary growth.\n\nTypically found at elevations from sea level up to approximately 1,400 meters, it spends a significant portion of its time in the upper layers of the forest. However, it frequently descends to lower levels to forage on flowering shrubs and vines located in clearings or along forest borders.","animal_behavior_and_reproduction":"Female Green Torntails are primarily solitary and exhibit territorial behavior, particularly when defending preferred nectar sources or nesting sites. Unlike the more conspicuous males, females maintain a subtle presence to avoid predation while foraging in the canopy or at forest edges. They do not form long-term pair bonds; instead, their social structure is defined by brief interactions during the breeding season. The female is entirely responsible for the reproductive process after mating, including selecting a site, constructing a cup-shaped nest from plant down and spider silk, and camouflaging the exterior with lichen to blend into the surrounding branches.\n\nMating is polygynous, with females choosing mates based on the males' aerial displays before departing to raise the brood alone. A typical clutch consists of two small white eggs, which the female incubates for approximately two weeks. Her reproductive strategy relies heavily on stealth; she often takes indirect routes to the nest to prevent predators from discovering its location. Once the chicks hatch, she provides all their nourishment, delivering a high-protein diet of regurgitated insects and nectar until they are ready to fledge.","diet":"The female Green Thorntail sustains itself primarily on a diet of nectar sourced from a diverse array of flowering trees, epiphytes, and shrubs, with a particular affinity for the blossoms of Inga and various melastomes located high in the forest canopy. To meet its nutritional requirements for protein and minerals, this hummingbird also engages in hawking, a maneuver where it captures small insects and spiders mid-air, or it may glean them directly from the surfaces of leaves. An intriguing aspect of its feeding strategy is its role as a generalist pollinator; because it often lacks the aggressive territoriality seen in some larger hummingbird species, the female frequently moves between different floral patches as a trap-liner, facilitating cross-pollination across a wider area. Furthermore, due to an exceptionally high metabolic rate, she must consume a significant volume of nectar daily, often visiting hundreds of individual flowers to maintain the energy levels necessary for her rapid wingbeats and hovering flight.","colors":"The female Green Thorntail displays metallic bronze-green upperparts and a prominent white band across the rump. Her underparts are characteristically blackish and heavily speckled with white spangles, paired with a distinct white malar stripe on the face. Unlike the long-tailed male, she possesses a short, notched dark tail, using her dark, spotted belly as camouflage to blend into the shaded foliage of the forest canopy.","fun_facts":"Female Green Thorntails are masters of deception, often mimicking the flight patterns and low-frequency buzzing of large bees to discourage predators and competitors. While they lack the elongated tail streamers of the males, they sport a conspicuous white rump band that flashes during their erratic, darting maneuvers through the canopy. These resourceful hummingbirds are also notorious \"nectar robbers,\" using their bills to pierce the base of long tubular flowers to steal sugar without pollinating the plant. Furthermore, they are highly disciplined \"trap-liners,\" memorizing precise, miles-long circuits through the forest to revisit specific nectar sources at the exact moment they replenish.","conservation_status_&_efforts":"Currently classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, this species maintains a stable population trend across its range in Central and South America. While the exact number of individuals has not been quantified, the bird remains relatively common within its preferred humid forest habitats. The primary threats facing the species involve habitat loss and fragmentation resulting from deforestation for agricultural expansion and logging. Additionally, climate change poses a long-term risk by potentially disrupting the flowering phenology of the nectar-producing plants upon which the bird depends for its specialized diet.\n\nConservation efforts primarily focus on the broad protection of tropical rainforest ecosystems rather than species-specific management plans. The bird benefits significantly from its presence in numerous established protected areas, such as the Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica and various biological reserves in Colombia and Panama. Maintaining these protected corridors and enforcing land-use regulations are the most critical measures currently in place to ensure the continued stability of its population and the preservation of the mid-elevation canopy environments it inhabits.","endemic":false,"migratory":false,"nocturnal":false,"conservation_status":"Least Concern","ebird_link":{"url":"https:\/\/ebird.org\/species\/gretho1","title":"View on Ebird","target":"_blank"},"animal_related_page":{"url":"https:\/\/animalia.bio\/green-thorntail","title":"View on Animalia","target":"_blank"},"fauna_family":"Trochilidae","fauna_known_nicknames":"Green Thorntail, Thorntail Hummingbird","fauna_average_length":"6.5\u20137.5 cm \/ 2.5\u20133.0 in","fauna_average_weight":"3.0\u20133.5 g \/ 0.11\u20130.12 oz","fauna_wingspan":"10\u201312 cm \/ 4.0\u20134.7 in","fauna_key_physical_feature":"Prominent white rump band and white malar stripe; lacks the long, wire-like tail feathers of the male","fauna_primary_diet":"Nectarivore and Insectivore","fauna_geographical_range":"Central America to South America (Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Western Ecuador)","fauna_preferred_habitat":"Canopy and edges of humid montane and lowland forests","fauna_social_structure":"Solitary","fauna_breeding_site":"Small cup nest made of plant fibers and lichen on high branches","fauna_conservation_status":"Least Concern (LC)","fauna_population_trend":"Decreasing","fauna_spanish_name":"Colicerda verde","fauna_french_name":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna\/249882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fauna"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=249882"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=249882"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-group?post=249882"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-type?post=249882"},{"taxonomy":"star-rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/star-rating?post=249882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}