A Magnificent Hummingbird

Magnificent Rivoli Hummingbird
Photo: Inge Curtis

Just as the most famous sultan of the Ottoman empire,  Suleiman the Magnificent, was known by different names according to region, the formerly named Magnificent Hummingbird is called Rivoli to the north of a boundary between Nicaragua and Costa Rica and Talamanca to the south (now split into separate taxa).

Not easily mistaken for other hummers, it is one of the largest with a 7” wingspan. The male has an iridescent blue-green throat gorget that serves as a brilliant flag to show his worthiness as a suitor or warn off competitors.

By Roger Gosden

A British and American scientist specializing in reproduction & embryology whose career spanned from Cambridge to Cornell's Weill Medical College in NYC. He married Lucinda Veeck, the embryologist for the first successful IVF team in America. They retired to Virginia, where he became a master naturalist and writer affiliated with William & Mary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Gosden

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