Green-throated Mountain-gem

The green-throated mountaingem is 11 to 12 cm (4.3 to 4.7 in) long and weighs about 5.4 g (0.19 oz). Both sexes of all subspecies have a straight black bill, a white stripe behind the eye above a dark cheek, and a slightly forked tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have green upperparts with a bronzy rump and bluish black uppertail coverts. Their central tail feathers are black and the rest pale gray. Their throat is white with bluish green spots, their breast white, their belly grayish with green spots on the sides and flanks, and their undertail coverts dusky gray. Adult females have emerald green upperparts and an unspotted white throat but are otherwise like the male. Juveniles are like adult females but with a pale buffy throat. Subspecies L. v. amadoni is darker overall than the nominate and is less bronzy on the rump. L. v. ovandensis differs from the nominate only in having a lesser extent of green spots on the sides and flanks. L. v. nubivagus has dark green upperparts and an intensely bronze rump.

The subspecies of green-throated mountaingem are found thus:

L. v. amadoni, the Sierra Atravesada in southeastern Oaxaca, Mexico L. v. ovandensis, Mexico's Chiapas state and northwestern Guatemala L. v. viridipallens, eastern Guatemala, extreme northern El Salvador, and western Honduras L. v. nubivagus, Santa Ana Volcano in western El Salvador The species inhabits the interior and edges of humid evergreen and pine-oak forest. In elevation it ranges between 900 and 2,700 m (3,000 and 8,900 ft).

The green-throated mountaingem forages for nectar at all levels of the forest. Details of the plants it visits have not been described. In addition to nectar it also feeds on insects captured by hawking.