Violet-capped Woodnymph

The violet-capped hummingbird is 8 to 11 cm (3.1 to 4.3 in) long. Males weigh 4 to 6.1 g (0.14 to 0.22 oz) and females 4 to 5 g (0.14 to 0.18 oz). Both sexes have a medium length straight bill that is blackish and sometimes has a dark brown tip to the mandible. The adult male has a glittering violet-blue forehead and crown, dark golden-green upperparts, and a steel blue forked tail. Its underparts are brilliant green with greenish to bluish undertail coverts. The adult female is entirely green above and dirty white to pale buff below. Its tail is only slightly forked; its inner feathers are metallic green and the outer ones steel blue with white tips. Subadult males have a turquoise-blue forehead and crown, whitish bars on the thoat feathers, and grayish brown areas on its underparts.

The violet-capped woodnymph is found in eastern and southeastern Brazil from Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul, northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province, eastern Paraguay, and northern Uruguay. It inhabits the interior and edges of primary forest, scrublands, and suburban and urban parks and gardens. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 850 m (2,800 ft).

The violet-capped woodnymph forages for nectar at all levels of its habitat and from a very wide variety of flowering plants, shrubs, and trees. In addition to nectar it captures small insects by hawking from a perch and by gleaning from vegetation.