Photo: Antonio Amaral
The Tufted Coquette is a Trochilidae apodiform bird. The Tufted Coquette is a small hummingbird measuring between 7.5 to 8.5 centimeters and weighing only 3 grams! The males of this species are elegant and have long tufts of green feathers with white tips on the throat. When fluffed up, they display a beautiful iridescent green spot behind the eyes. Upper back is green and rump is bronze, green throat, chest with white spots, gray abdomen, and white undertail coverts. Blue eyelids, black beak. Males do not have a red crest on the head. The female lacks the spectacular long cheek tufts and has a brown throat, chest with white spots, and a whitish facial stripe below the eyes instead. Both sexes exhibit a white band on the undertail coverts as many others in the genus, which is white for the male and brownish for the female.