Pale-bellied Hermit

The pale-bellied hermit is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long. Males weigh 4.5 to 5.5 g (0.16 to 0.19 oz) and females 4 to 5 g (0.14 to 0.18 oz). This medium-sized hermit has dark green to olive green upperparts and light gray underparts. The face has a black "mask" with a buffy supercilium and a mostly white throat. The male's bill is almost straight and the female's is decurved. P. a. hyalinus has more bluish green upperparts and paler underparts than the nominate. Members of the suggested P. a. fuscicapillus have shorter wings and bills than the rest of the nominate.

The nominate subspecies of pale-bellied hermit taken as a whole is found in central Panama; northern, central, and eastern Colombia; and western and northern Venezuela. The suggested P. a. fuscicapillus is the population in Colombia's Eastern Andes and possibly includes the Venezuelan population as well. P. a. hyalinus is found only on the Pearl Islands off the Pacific coast of Panama. The pale-bellied hermit mostly inhabits semi-deciduous forest and also drier woodland, secondary forest, gallery forest, plantations, and brushy and thorny landscapes. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

The pale-bellied hermit is a "trap-line" feeder like other hermit hummingbirds, visiting a circuit of a wide variety of flowering plants for nectar. It also consumes small arthropods.