Great-billed Hermit

Common name: Great-billed Hermit
Scientific name: Phaethornis malaris
Clades: Phaethornithinae - Hermits

The Great-billed Hermit is 13 to 17.5 cm (5.1 to 6.9 in) long and weighs 4.5 to 10 g (0.16 to 0.35 oz).

There is a great deal of overlap between this medium-sized hermit and Long-tailed Hermit (P. supreciliosus), but it is distinguished from it by its faint gular stripe. The Great-billed Hermit lives in moist tropical forest understory, bamboo thickets, and shrubbery in terra firme, pre-montane, and transitional forests. Nectar and small arthropods make up the diet of the Great-billed hermit, as they do for other hermit species. There are no global threats to these birds, but the race margarettae is isolated to forest remnants within its range in eastern Brazil.

6 subspecies:

(Great-billed)

1. P. m. insolitus
   Distribution E Colombia, S Venezuela and adjacent N Brazil (NW Amazonas).

2. P. m. malaris
   Distribution Suriname and French Guiana to CN Brazil (Amapá).

   (Amazonian)

3. P. m. moorei
   Distribution E and S Colombia, E Ecuador and NE Peru (N of R Marañón).

4. P. m. ochraceiventris
   Distribution NE Peru (S of R Marañón) and W Brazil (S of Amazon, E to lower R Madeira).

5. P. m. bolivianus
   Distribution SE Peru to C Bolivia (to W Santa Cruz) and W Brazil S of Amazon (R Madeira E to W bank of R Tapajós).

   (Margaretta’s)

6. P. m. margarettae
   Distribution coastal E Brazil (Pernambuco S to Espírito Santo).