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To the Beauty of Birds

The Violet Sabrewing Campylopterus hemileucurus is a very large hummingbird native to southern Mexico and Central America as far south as Costa Rica and western Panama.
The Violet Sabrewing is 15 cm long; the male weighs 11.5 g and the female 9.5 g. It is the largest hummingbird found outside of South America and the largest sabrewing. The adult male is deep violet, with a dark green back and wing coverts. The shafts of the male’s outer primary flight feathers are thickened and flattened to give the distinctive feature which gives the sabrewings their English and scientific names. The three outer pairs of feathers of the otherwise black tail are white; this gives rise to the scientific species name, hemileucurus translating as "half-white tail", but several other sabrewings share the tail pattern.
The female is dark green above and grey below apart from a violet throat; the tail pattern is the same as the male's.

These were photographed at the La Paz Peace Lodge, the Coffee Plantation and Bosque de la Paz (where it was photographed taking a bath in the pond).

The Violet Sabrewing arguably one of the most beautiful of the Costa Rican hummingbirds.

Violet Sabrewing Hummingbird