Little Woodstar

The little woodstar is 6 to 7 cm (2.4 to 2.8 in) long. Both sexes have a straightish black bill. The male is mostly dark bronzy blue-green. It has a buffy white line behind the eye that curves down to meet the buffy chest. Its gorget is rosy. The tail is forked and its outermost feathers are shafts with no vanes. The female is bronzy green above and mostly cinnamon below with tawny flanks and vent. The tail is rounded and tawny with a black bar near the end.

The little woodstar is found from extreme southwestern Colombia through western Ecuador into northern Peru and discontinuously in eastern Ecuador and north central Peru. It inhabits the transition zone between semi-humid and humid deciduous forest. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 2,300 m (7,500 ft) in western Ecuador and between 900 and 3,000 m (3,000 and 9,800 ft) in eastern Ecuador and Peru.

The little woodstar forages from near the ground to the forest's middle level, visiting a wide variety of flowering plants and trees. Little is known about its foraging strategy but it is assumed to behave like its close relative the white-bellied woodstar (C. muslant). That species does not defend feeding territories, and because of its small size and slow bumblebee-like flight is able to feed in the territories of other hummingbirds.