Reddish Hermit

The reddish hermit is 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) long and weighs 1.8 to 3 g (0.06 to 0.11 oz). All subspecies are generally dark green and rufous on the upperparts and cinnamon rufous on the underparts. Males have a black band on the chest and the tail feather have narrow white or reddish tips. Females have lighter underparts than the males. P. r. episcopus is about the same size as the nominate but has orange-rufous rather than cinnamon-rufous underparts and white tips to the tail. P. r. nigricinctus is the smallest subspecies; it has the richest rufous underparts. P. r. longipennis is the largest subspecies. It has a whitish chin and its central tail feathers have rufous tips.

The subspecies of reddish hermit are distributed thus:

P. r. episcopus, central and eastern Venezuela, Guyana, and northwestern Brazil's Roraima state P. r. ruber, Suriname and French Guiana through Brazil as far south as northern Paraná state and in the west to southeastern Peru and northern Bolivia. P. r. nigricinctus, eastern and southern Colombia and extreme southwestern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador into northeastern Peru and northwestern Brazil. P. r. longipennis, southeastern Peru from the department of Pasco to northern Cuzco.

The reddish hermit is a "trap-line" feeder like other hermit hummingbirds, visiting a circuit of many species of flowering plants for nectar. It also consumes small arthropods. Nectar robbing by piercing the base of a flower has been regularly observed in southeastern Brazil.