Lophornis brachylophus
The Short-crested Coquette is an incredibly small hummingbird. At less than 3 inches long, it’s barely the size of a butterfly! This is one of the rarest Mexican hummingbirds, with an extremely limited range in the state of Guerrero. The Short-crested Coquette is a prime example of a microendemic species: a species restricted to only a tiny area and found nowhere else on Earth.
In addition to their remarkable size, the coquettes are also among the showiest hummingbirds, with males sporting spiky crests and showy cheek tufts. Their common names hint at their gaudiness: Tufted, Dot-eared, Spangled, Peacock, Festive, and Frilled — each earns its name with its fabulous plumage. The Short-crested is no exception, with its contrasting hues of fiery orange and emerald green.
When first observed by ornithologists in the 1940s, the Short-crested Coquette was not recognized as a distinct species. In the 1973 Field Guide to Mexican Birds, for example, Roger Tory Peterson didn’t distinguish it from the Rufous-crested Coquette, a species found from Panama to Peru (with a few Costa Rican specimens as well), and guessed that it was accidental in Guerrero.
It wasn’t until the early 1990s that full species status came to what some authorities had been calling “the Coquette Hummingbird of Guerrero.” Among the differences cited between the Short-crested and the Rufous-crested Coquettes: the namesake shorter crest, different bill color, a different tail pattern in males, and different throat color in females.
These days, this tiny bird looms large for conservationists. Its range, the Sierra de Atoyac, is recognized as an Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site and a Key Biodiversity Area. AZE sites are designated to safeguard the last remaining refuges of Endangered or Critically Endangered species. Remarkably, the Short-crested Coquette is one of seven AZE species in the Sierra de Atoyac. Other scarce birds found in the area include the Near Threatened Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Vulnerable White-throated Jay, and Endangered Yellow-headed Parrot. More study and conservation action are needed to protect these declining species, and ABC has been working with our partner at the Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero (Autonomous University of Guerrero) for almost a decade to study and conserve them.
The microendemic Short-crested Coquette is only known from a very small area in the Mexican state of Guerrero. With its extremely limited geographic range and its small population size, the Short-crested Coquette is highly vulnerable. These factors have brought this incredibly rare species to the brink of extinction. Researchers estimate that its population is shrinking by about 10 to 19 percent every 10 years.
The forests that the Short-crested Coquette has historically depended upon are at great risk from unsustainable logging and agricultural expansion. Much of this forest was rapidly cleared in the 1990s, eliminating about a quarter of this bird’s existing habitat — and therefore, its geographic range. The remaining forest faces the same threats, along with forest fires and impacts from climate change.
The Short-crested Coquette is at risk of extinction and needs our help to overcome the threats it faces. To conserve this marvelous species, ABC works with local communities and with researcher Dr. Roberto Carlos Almazán-Núñez from the Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero. With ABC’s support, voluntary protected areas, designated by the communities themselves, have been established in the Short-crested Coquette’s key habitat. In partnership with Dr. Almazán, the focus now is on expanding the protected area network for the species while training locals to monitor and manage their community reserves.
El hábitat es fundamental para la supervivencia de las aves. Trabajando con decenas de socios y comunidades locales en toda Latinoamérica y el Caribe, ABC apoya una creciente red de áreas protegidas en más de una docena de países. Con un total de más de 1,3 millones de acres, casi un tercio de la avifauna mundial (más de 3.000 especies) está protegida por una reserva apoyada por ABC.
Habitat loss is the main driver behind the Short-crested Coquette’s decline. To protect this species, ABC, Dr. Almazán-Núñez, and six local communities have set aside nearly 22,000 acres of land to create reserves on the ejidos for this unique hummingbird, as well as other wildlife. With guidance from Almazán-Núñez, locals manage, protect, and monitor these newly created reserves.
The Short-crested Coquette is a minute beauty. Males sport shining emerald-green throat feathers (also called a gorget) set off by a contrasting rufous crown and rufous-and-white breast. The flame-colored crown feathers just above his eyes are especially long, creating the namesake crest. Though shorter than the crests of other coquette hummingbirds, his is certainly notable, whether standing erect and fanned out like an odd extension of his face, or flattened down in a stylish orange slick-back. Females don’t have the fancy crown or gorget, but both sexes share a rufous belly, iridescent green back and flanks, a broad white to rufous band across the lower back, and a rufous tail with a wide black band.
Though mostly silent, the Short-crested Coquette gives soft high tsip calls. In flight, this hummingbird’s wings produce a whirring sound that has been compared to that of a bee. Due to its rarity and quiet nature, there are only a handful of audio recordings of this species.
Credit: Short-crested Coquette by Charlie Wright; Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library. Accessible at: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/158849241.
The Short-crested Coquette is largely restricted to humid mountain forests, such as cloud forests and pine-oak forests
Área específica
Sierra Madre del Sur, Guerrero, Mexico
Detalles de la gama
The Short-crested Coquette is considered to be a microendemic, restricted to the rugged Sierra de Atoyac mountain range within the larger Sierra Madre del Sur, known for its high biodiversity and large number of endemic plant and animal species. Most sightings of this hummingbird come from a 16-mile stretch of the Atoyac-Paraíso-Puerto del Gallo road.
¿Sabías?
For many years, the distribution of this species was thought to be only about 30 to 35 square miles. However, a 2025 estudiar found that these tiny hummingbirds are elevational migrants, and the full geographical area that they use is larger, closer to 210 square miles. While this is substantially larger than previous estimates, the Short-crested Coquette’s range is still extremely limited.
The Short-crested Coquette shares its limited range with a number of other hummingbirds, many of which rely on the same food resources. Being one of the smallest birds on the block, this species tends to be at the bottom of the pecking order, and larger hummingbird species often chase off the tiny coquettes. However, most scuffles can be avoided with highly specific niche partitioning, where different hummingbirds focus on different heights within the forest canopy.
Short-crested Coquettes feed on flower nectar, especially of plant species with small flowers. For example, they visit trees in the genus Inga, which are often planted to shade coffee plants, and Cecropia, fast-growing trees usually sprouting up in forest openings and edges. These hummingbirds also feed on fruits during the rainy season and catch insects on the wing.
Courtship behavior in the Short-crested Coquette has not been documented in the scientific literature, and is poorly known for the coquettes in general. In several species where courtship has been documented, males hover or fly side to side in front of a perched female while displaying their crests, gorgets, or other color patches.
No nests have been described for this species. Nesting among coquette species is generally not well studied, but typically females lay two eggs and care for the nest and young on their own.
The nesting and parental behavior of this species have not been documented. However, most hummingbird clutches contain two eggs that are tended to by the female alone.
Noticias e historias relacionadas
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