White-booted racket-tail
Common name: White-booted racket-tail
Scientific name: Ocreatus underwoodii
Clades: Heliantheini - Brilliants
The White-booted Racket-tail male is 11 to 15 cm (4.3 to 5.9 in) long including the 7 to 8 cm (2.8 to 3.1 in) long outer tail feathers and weighs 2.5 to 2.7 g (0.088 to 0.095 oz). The females are 7.6 to 9 cm (3.0 to 3.5 in) long and weigh 2.6 to 3.2 g (0.092 to 0.11 oz).
White-booted Racket-tails are very cute hummingbirds that live in cloud forests. Their long tails make them appear bigger than they actually are. It is easy to recognize him due to the rackets he uses and the white leg puffs on his legs. Females lack long tails and rackets, and their white breasts and whisker marks enable them to be identified. In comparison with a female Purple-bibbed Whitetip, she has a shorter bill, clear breasts, and a white spot (not a line) behind her eye. In the eastern Andes of southern Colombia, this species overlaps with the Peruvian Racket-tail; note the female's clean, unmarked breast and her white (not buffy) boots. At forest edges and in clearings, the species often feed on small flowers, and in some areas, it is found at feeders.
5 subspecies:
O. u. polystictus
Distribution Coastal mountains of northern Venezuela (Carabobo to Miranda).O. u. discifer
Distribution Northwestern Venezuela (Zulia and Falcón to Táchira and W Barinas) and northern Colombia (Norte de Santander).O. u. incommodus
Distribution Western and Central Andes of Colombia.O. u. melanantherus
Distribution Western slope from southwestern Colombia (Nariño) to southwestern Ecuador.
