# Antillean Crested Hummingbird

Scientific name: Orthorhyncus cristatus

Bird group: [hummingbird](https://birdsofpuertorico.com/family/hummingbird)

Canonical source: https://birdsofpuertorico.com/bird/98/Antillean-Crested-Hummingbird

## Identification

The Antillean crested hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus) is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. Found across Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, north-east Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Eustatius, the British Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, while it has also been recorded as a vagrant in Florida, USA.
As the name implies, Antillean crested hummingbird is one of the few hummingbirds with a crest. It demonstrates the general sexual dimorphism for hummingbirds where the male is bright and colorful whilst the female is more tannish and dull.[11] Males have a short straight black bill; head with green crest, tipped metallic green to bright blue-green, upperparts dull metallic bronze-green; underparts sooty black; tail black, rounded. The female bill is similar to male’s but its head is without a crest; the forehead, crown and upperparts are metallic bronzy-green; underparts light grey; tail blackish, rounded, four outer rectrices broadly tipped whitish grey.


## Distribution and habitat

The Antillean Crested Hummingbird is a common 
resident throughout the Lesser 
Antilles, the Virgin Islands, and 
Puerto Rico (Raffaele and others 
1998), principally on the eastern 
coast of the island including 
Culebra (Ventosa-Febles and others 2005) and Vieques 
(Gemmill 2015). The species is 
believed to be a relatively recent 
arrival from the Virgin Islands 
and the Lesser Antilles. First 
documented with a specimen 
from Vieques in 1912 (Wetmore 
1916), it was not found on 
mainland Puerto Rico in 1875–
1876 by Gundlach (1878) nor in 
1911–1912 by Wetmore (1916, 
1917), who was skeptical of 
reports of the species occurrence 
on the main island. Even as 
late as 1950, the species was 
described as being of doubtful 
occurrence on Puerto Rico but 
by 1960 it was recognized as 
occurring in eastern Puerto Rico 
(Bond 1961, 1967), where it 
was believed to be expanding 
its range to the south (Raffaele 1989a). This species mostly 
occurs in lowland openings, 
developed areas, gardens, forest 
edges, and especially arid and 
dry forests, but also mountain 
forests, at least on other islands 
(Biaggi 1997, Raffaele and 
others 1998, Schuchmann and 
Boesman 2020). The atlas 
fieldwork yielded a total of 86 
records within 47 hexagons or 10 
percent of the 479 total hexagons 
(see map). Of the 47 hexagons 
where this species was found, 
breeding met the atlas definition 
of confirmed in 17 percent (8) of 
the hexagons, probable in 15 
percent (7), and possible in 66 
percent (31), while the species 
was observed in 2 percent 
(1) of the hexagons but without 
evidence of breeding (see map). Antillean Crested Hummingbird distribution. The map shows the highest breeding code by hexagon and overlaying the ecological 
life zones in Puerto Rico. Note: percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.      89Antillean Crested Hummingbird/Zumbadorcito Crestado 

## Breeding

The Antillean Crested Hummingbird nests in a tiny 
cup of cotton or fine fibers 
covered with lichens in a tree, 
bush, or vine above the ground, 
year-round, but primarily from 
January to August, according 
to previously published reports 
(Raffaele and others 1998). 
Atlas results indicate that this 
species breeding season extends 
throughout the year (except for 
the atlas data gap in August), 
with the most breeding activity 
from January through July (see 
chart). This seasonal breeding 
pattern appears to coincide in each of the life zones with only 
a slight indication that breeding 
in the driest months (February, 
March, April) is reduced relative 
to the subtropical moist forest 
life zone. Results show that 
this species mostly breeds on 
the coastal plain within the 
subtropical dry forest life zone 
(50 percent of the hexagons), the 
subtropical moist forest life zone 
(48 percent of the hexagons), 
and for only one hexagon (2 
percent of the hexagons) in 
the subtropical rain and lower 
montane rain forest life zones 
(see table and map).

## Conservation

This species is listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN 
(BirdLife International 2016), 
and locally it is not listed in any 
of the threatened categories 
used by PRDNER and USFWS. 
In Puerto Rico, the Antillean 
Crested Hummingbird has a 
protected habitat in land of 
about 14 percent or 152 km2 of the total area covered by 
the hexagons where evidence 
of breeding was found for this 
species (~1096 km2). 

Photo: https://birdsofpuertorico.com/static/images/webp/in_098_Im0.png.webp

Distribution map: https://birdsofpuertorico.com/static/images/webp/in_098_Im1.png.webp

Source note: Text is reproduced from this site's published record. Historical conservation statements and taxonomy have not been independently revalidated. See https://birdsofpuertorico.com/about for source credits and limitations.