Birdwatch: the tiny bird with a beak longer than its body

The Ecuadorian sword-billed hummingbird looks like a medieval lancer preparing for a joustSylphs 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. Continue reading...