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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Stephen Moss

INSANE: Birdwatch the tiny bird with a beak longer than its body | Rare Historical Photos

Ecuador
Sword-billed hummingbird
The sword-billed hummingbird uses its feet to clean and preen its feathers. Photograph: Carlos Ortega/EPA

Sylphs and sunbeams, hermits and hillstars, emeralds, coronets and woodnymphs. Not the names of Inca gods but just some of the 36 kinds of hummingbird I saw on a recent visit to Ecuador. And that’s just a fraction of the 132 species found there, more than any other country.

But of all of these dazzling little creatures, the most striking was one with a longer bill in relation to its body than any other bird in the world: the sword-billed hummingbird. With the scientific name Ensifera – meaning “sword-bearing” – it looks like a medieval lancer preparing for a joust.

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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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