The reddish hermit is a species of bird in the family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and the Guianas.
Region
Amazon Basin and the Guianas
Typical Environment
Occurs widely in humid lowland rainforest across northern South America, including the Guianas, Amazonian Brazil, southern Venezuela, eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, and northern Bolivia. It favors shaded understory and forest edges, especially along streams and in clearings with abundant flowering plants. Often found in secondary growth, gallery forest, and várzea and igapó floodplain forest. Readily uses Heliconia-rich thickets and other nectar-rich patches within otherwise dense forest.
Altitude Range
0–1200 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
A tiny hermit hummingbird, it forages by ‘traplining,’ visiting a predictable circuit of flowers each day. Males display at small leks with persistent, high-pitched songs to attract females. It is an important pollinator of Heliconia and other tubular understory plants. Nests are suspended from the underside of broad leaves, often over water, using spider silk.
Temperament
solitary and territorial
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats with agile hovering
Social Behavior
Generally solitary in the understory, defending small feeding routes rather than fixed territories. Males gather in small, dispersed leks where they sing and chase to court females; males provide no parental care. The nest is a small cone-shaped cup suspended from the underside of a broad leaf, often over water, bound with spider silk and plant fibers.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
A rapid series of high, thin, squeaky notes delivered persistently from a low perch. Calls include sharp tsip and tsee notes used during chases. Vocalizing can continue for extended periods at lek sites.
Plumage
Overall warm rufous to cinnamon underparts with olive-brown to bronzy upperparts; tail relatively short for a hermit with contrasting tips. Typical hermit face pattern with a dusky mask bordered by pale supercilium and malar stripe. Feathers appear sleek and slightly iridescent in good light.
Diet
Primarily feeds on nectar from tubular flowers such as Heliconia, Costus, and other understory blossoms, using its slightly decurved bill and long tongue. Supplements nectar with small arthropods—tiny insects and spiders—caught by hawking or gleaning from foliage. Follows a trapline circuit, returning to the same flowers as they replenish.
Preferred Environment
Forages in shaded understory and along forest edges, particularly near dense patches of flowering plants. Frequently visits streamside thickets and secondary growth where nectar is abundant.
