Snowcap

TAXONOMIC TREE:  Caprimulgiformes, Trochilidae, Microchera albocoronata

**Costa Rica Near-Endemic**

@ Rancho Naturalista, Cartago Province, Costa Rica

The Snowcap (Microchera albocoronata) is a spectacular, tiny hummingbird of Central American cloud forests. The male is black overall, but with a unique purple or bronze iridescence on the upperparts. Its namesake white crown is brilliant and constrasts sharply with the dark body plumage. The female is less spectacular, but the combination of small size, green upperparts, clean white underparts, and extensive white in the outer rectrices contrasting with a dark terminal tail band is distinctive. This species feeds at all strata in humid montane evergreen forests from southern Honduras south to central Panama.

Snowcap Distribution Map (from eBird)

PHOTO GALLERY

@ Rancho Naturalista, Cartago Province, Costa Rica

@ Rancho Naturalista, Cartago Province, Costa Rica

@ Rancho Naturalista, Cartago Province, Costa Rica

@ Rancho Naturalista, Cartago Province, Costa Rica

*Some of this website's species' photos (all taken by me) may have been taken in other nearby countries.