As Halloween draws ever nearer, the time has come to bring forth the very personification of evil itself. That’s right, today we’re meeting the Prince of Darkness, the goat-man downstairs, he’s bathed in hellfire. You love him, you fear him, it’s the Lucifer Sheartail (Calothorax lucifer).
Look not upon its fearsome visage, less thee go insane. I do admit it, yes, this is a rather handsome Hummingbird, but be not fooled, for the devil can take on pleasing forms.
Okay, so what’s going on with this sparkling chap’s name? Well, ‘sheartail’ is a reference to its forked tail. That’s right, all your life you thought the devil was a serpent with a forked tongue, turned out it was a bird with a forked tail, go figure.
But enough of this gay levity, I know it’s the ‘Lucifer’ part of its name that you really want to know about. Well, sadly it has nothing to do with the devil. I know, major bummer. I was hoping these birds were the demon lords of the avian world. Don’t worry, in my mind they still are. To get to the bottom of that mystery, we must turn to the original Latin. In this case, it means light-bringer. In antiquity, this was the Greek name for the planet Venus, and is also why Satan is sometimes referred to as Lucifer Morningstar.
For our little Hummingbird, this is a reference to the male’s bright purple gorget feathers which catch the light in dazzling ways. So, far from being the Prince of Darkness, they are quite literally a light-bringer. Of course, they use their pleasing form to lure the ladies into mating with them. So maybe they have something of the old sweet-talking serpent after all.
17/10/2021
Bird of the Week 