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Violet-throated Metaltail
Metallura baroni Salvin, 1893
Trochilidae — Hummingbirds
Violet-throated Metaltail, Metallura baroni, is a hummingbird found only in south-west Ecuador, where it breeds on the Cajas Plateau west of Cuenca. It was described by Salvin in 1893 and belongs to the family Trochilidae. Its home is the edges of elfin forest and Polylepis woodland, together with nearby páramo grassland, especially places with boulders clothed in bromeliads, heaths, ferns and mosses. It usually occurs from 3,000 to 3,900 m, though it has once been recorded much lower. The species has a medium-length straight black bill.
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Trochilidae — Hummingbirds
- Breeding range
- South America: sc Ecuador
