Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Stripe-throated Hermit (Phaethornis striigularis) - HBW 5, p. 547

French: Ermite à gorge rayée German: Streifenkehl-Schattenkolibri Spanish: Ermitaño Gorgiestriado
Other common names: Dusky/Boucard’s Hermit (saturatus = adolphi)

Taxonomy: Phaëthornis striigularis Gould, 1854, Bogotá, Colombia.
One of the small hermits sometimes separated in genus Pygmornis. Often considered conspecific with P. longuemareus, but morphological characters indicate closest relationship is to P. griseogularis; race saturatus in particular is extremely similar to P. g. griseogularis. Other close relatives include P. atrimentalis, P. ruber and P. stuarti. Race saturatus (= adolphi) sometimes treated as a separate species. Further races proposed in Mexico (cordobae = adolphi) and Panama (nelsoni = fraterculus) judged invalid, as claimed differences fail to take into account age- and sex-related variation in saturatus. In NW Colombia, races saturatus, subrufescens and striigularis come together in a zone of character introgression. Name adolphi pre-dates saturatus, but considered to be preoccupied by almost identical name; adolphi therefore subsequently replaced by cordobae, but this in turn becomes junior synonym of saturatus. Four subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

saturatus Ridgway, 1910 - S Mexico (S Veracruz) to NW Colombia.
subrufescens Chapman, 1917 - W Colombia and W Ecuador.
striigularis Gould, 1854 - N Colombia (and Magdalena Valley) and adjacent W Venezuela.
ignobilis Todd, 1913 - N Venezuela.