Earth Month, Puerto Rican Green Mango Hummingbirds and Sea Hibiscus

Summary: Earth Month April 2019 acclaims ambient aspects of such trees as the sea hibiscus, whose nectar appeals to Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds.

Puerto Rican green mango hummingbird (Anthracothorax viridis), known in French as le Colibri vert, illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XV, opposite page 39: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Earth Month April 2019 before, on and after the actual Earth Day April 22, 2019, applauds trees such as the sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus), whose afforestation affects Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds.

Earth Month, begun by high school student Bradley Follett June 1968 as Global Cleanup Month, became Earth Month in 1970 and the non-profit Earth Month Network. It considers clean energy and transportation, community resiliency, employment, globally warmed climate change, healthy oceans and marine life, nutritious food and potable water, and urban well-being. It demands ten R's of sustainability: respect, refuse ecosystem harm, reduce resource use, reuse, renew, recycle, responsibilitize for transparent business and government, rethink, replant and restore.

Trees such as sea hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus, literally linden-like marsh mallow), whose endurance Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds ensure by enabling pollination, embody the 10 R's.

October through May fit into the four-plus-year life cycles of Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds, endemics exclusive to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as breeding months.

Mating-motivated male Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds give aerial displays in central and western Puerto Rico's Cordillera Central (Central Mountains) and eastern Puerto Rico's Luquillo Mountains. The physically and sexually mature Trochilidae (from Greek τροχίλος, trokhílos, "one who runs" and -ειδής, -eidés, "resemblance") female member has one two-egg seasonal clutch every year. She incubates the white, 0.47-plus-inch- (12-plus-millimeter-) long and 0.32-plus-inch- (8-plus-millimeter-) wide eggs in a cup-shaped nest of plant fibers with lichen as exterior and interior lining.

Fathers-to-be and mothers-to-be respectively juggle guard duties in nearby trees and egg-warming duties in seasonal nests on vertical branches 26.35 feet (8 meters) above tree bases.

Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds keep eggs, hatchlings and nestlings in 2-plus-inch- (50.8-plus-millimeter-) high, 2-plus-inch (50.8-plus-millimeter) outer-diameter nests with 1.5-plus-inch (38.1-millimeter), 1.5-plus-inch- (38.1-millimeter-) deep inner diameters.

Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds look like black, blind, deaf hatchlings with two rows of upper-side down even though they leave as brown-headed, brown-backed 20-plus-day-old fledglings. Anthracothorax viridis (from Greek ἀνθραξ, "charcoal" and θώρᾱξ, "corslet" and Latin viridis, "green") manages 50-plus backward, forward, downward, hovering, rapid-start, rapid-stop, upside-down, upward wingbeats per second. Mature green mango hummingbirds, noted by Jean Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800) and Louis Vieillot (May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830), net 30-plus-mile (48.28-plus-kilometer) hourly speeds.

Puerto Rican green mango hummngbirds obtain airborn beetle and fly and branch-born spider prey and offer rattled warnings and trill-like, twittered szzzzz-szi-szi-chup-tsz-tsz songs with initial buzzes.

Black-billed, brown-eyed females and males possess respectively lower- and upper-ranging 0.91- to 1.06-inch (23- to 27-millimeter) beak and 4.09- to 4.61-inch (104- to 117-millimeter) body lengths.

Green-feathered females and males respectively queue up lower- and upper-ranging 1.32- to 1.52-inch (33.5- to 38.5-millimeter) tail and 2.29- to 2.64-inch (58.3- to 67-millimeter) wingspan lengths. Curve-billed, black-footed, black-legged, blue-black-tailed, blue-green-bellied females and males realize bronze-green iridescence in sunlight and respectively reveal lower- and upper-ranging 0.23- to 0.25-ounce (6.6- to 7.2-gram) weights. Females with white eyespots and white-tipped tails and males survive in forests, gardens and plantations at 2,624.67- to 3,937.01-foot (800- to 1,200-meter) altitudes above sea level.

Earth Month tenders Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds, zumbadores verdes de Borinquén (Land of Brave People's green hummers) bird-of-paradise (Heliconia), hibiscus and lion's tail (Leonotis leonurus).

A female (top) and two male (center) Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds (Anthracothorax viridis) under synonym Lampornis viridis, visit broad wave-leaved pitcairnia (Pitcairnia undulatifolia); illustration by English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881) and English zoological illustratory Henry Constantine Richter (June 7, 1821-March 16, 1902); J. Gould's A Monograph of the Trochilidae (1861), vol. II: Plate 78: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Puerto Rican green mango hummingbird (Anthracothorax viridis), known in French as le Colibri vert, illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XV, opposite page 39: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131858; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51025557786/

A female (top) and two male (center) Puerto Rican green mango hummingbirds (Anthracothorax viridis) under synonym Lampornis viridis, visit broad wave-leaved pitcairnia (Pitcairnia undulatifolia); illustration by English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould (Sept. 14, 1804-Feb. 3, 1881) and English zoological illustratory Henry Constantine Richter (June 7, 1821-March 16, 1902); printed by firm of (Charles Joseph) Hullmandel and (Joseph Fowell) Walton; J. Gould's A Monograph of the Trochilidae (1861), vol. II: Plate 78: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34842915; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/7175948026/

For further information:

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "Le Colibri vert. Planche XV." Histoire Naturelle et Générales des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouchees, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou á Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: 39. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131859

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "Le Colibri vert. Pl. 15." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou á Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: opposite page 39. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131858

Gould, John. 1861. "Lampornis viridis. Blue-tailed mango." A Monograph of the Trochilidae, or Family of Humming-birds, vol. II: 78. In five volumes. London, England: Printed by Taylor and Francis for the Author.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34842915
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/monographTrochi2Goul#page/n157/mode/1up

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 April 2019. "Hau Hawaiian Sea Hibiscus, Ma'a Hawaiian Sling, Five-0's Way of the Gun." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/hau-hawaiian-sea-hibiscus-maa-hawaiian.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 March 2019. "Puerto Rican Emerald Hummingbirds and Puerto Rican statehood." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/puerto-rican-emerald-hummingbirds-and.html

Schuchman, Karl-L. "Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 9, Birds II: 437-452. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing, 2016.