Violet Sabrewing

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. It is a species of the understory and edges of mountain forests, especially near streams. The female violet saber wing lays two white eggs in a relatively large cup nest on a low horizontal branch, usually over a stream.

The male violet saber wing measures 15 cm in length, while the female weighs 9.5 g. It is the biggest saber and the biggest hummingbird outside of South America. The adult male has a deep violet color with dark green wings and a back. The characteristic feature that lends the saber wings their English and scientific names is the thickening and flattening of the shafts of the male's outer primary flight feathers. The scientific name for the species, hemileucurus, which translates to "half-white tail", comes from the fact that the three outer pairs of feathers on the otherwise black tail are white. Several other saber wings, including the white-tailed saber wing of Venezuela and Tobago, also have this tail pattern.