Rufous-crested Coquette

Yesterday afternoon, our friends Bill and Claudia alerted us to the presence of a male Rufous-crested Coquette (Lophornis delattrei) foraging in their yard. It was toward the end of the day and Marco's cellphone was misbehaving as it often does, so we did not receive the message in time to rush over to their house before dark. They were kind enough to phone us this afternoon when a female of the species showed up. We were just about to head out on an errand, so the errand got delayed and we drove directly to their house. After about 10 minutes, the little gal made her first of several appearances during the 90-or-so minutes we stayed. She returned each time to a verbena bush and methodically worked her way around each little cluster of flowers. When the local Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds tried to chase her off, she held her ground, usually turning to face them down, and promptly returned to finish her feeding session at the verbena. Marco got some nice video of her: