White-vented Violetear

The white-vented violetear is 12 to 13 cm (4.7 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 5.6 to 6.8 g (0.20 to 0.24 oz). The male is mostly shiny green, of a shade lighter than that of other violetears. Towards the rump it is yellow-green with a blue shimmer. The tail is glittering green with a wide steel-blue band near the end. The undertail coverts are pure white. The area behind the eye and covering the ears is violet blue. The female is similar to the male but paler and more grayish. The maxilla of both sexes is sometimes serrated, which provides its specific epithet.

The white-vented violetear is found in a wide swath of southern Brazil, from Mato Grosso east to Goiás, Bahia and Espírito Santo and south to Santa Catarina. Its range extends west into Bolivia, central Paraguay, and northern Argentina as far south as Córdoba Province. It inhabits a variety of semi-open landscapes including scrublands, savanna, grassland, and gardens and parks. In elevation it is most common between 1,000 and 1,500 m (3,300 and 4,900 ft) but its range begins at sea level and extends to 3,600 m (11,800 ft) in the Andes.

The white-vented violetear forages for nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants and trees. It also captures insects on the wing. It is very aggressive, calling from a perch and chasing other nectar-feeding birds and even butterflies from flower patches. It tends to begin feeding earlier in the day than other hummingbirds.