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Andean hillstar hummingbird perched on branch

Andean hillstar

Andean Hillstars survive the sub zero temperatures of the high Andes by going into torpor at night, like a mini hibernation. They roost where the rising sun's rays will catch them and warm them into waking again in the morning.

Scientific name: Oreotrochilus estella

Rank: Species

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Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Andean hillstar taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

The Andean hillstar can be found in a number of locations including: South America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Andean hillstar distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Mountain grassland
Mountain grassland Mountains
Mountains

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Least Concern

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Year assessed: 2009

Classified by: IUCN 3.1

About

The Andean Hillstar (Oreotrochilus estella) is a species of hummingbird in the Trochilidae family. It is found in grassland, scrub and woodland in the Altiplano of southern Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile, and north-western Argentina. It often includes the Green-headed Hillstar as a subspecies, but the male of that species has a black (not brown) stripe to the central underparts, and its upperparts are greener.

The species is unusually well adapted to cold nights in the Andes, which it survives by reducing its metabolic rate to something like that of hibernation in sheltered niches facing the rising sun.

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Classification

  1. Life
  2. Animals
  3. Vertebrates
  4. Birds
  5. Swifts and hummingbirds
  6. Hummingbirds
  7. Oreotrochilus
  8. Andean hillstar

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