Straight-billed Hermit

The straight-billed hermit is 12 to 14 cm (4.7 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 3.5 to 5 g (0.12 to 0.18 oz). It is one of the few hermit hummingbirds with a straight bill. Its upperparts are olive green and the underparts brownish to grayish. The innermost pair of tail feathers are longer than the others and have long white tips; the others also have white tips. P. b. major is significantly larger than the nominate but has similar plumage.

The nominate subspecies of straight-billed hermit is found from southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador into northeastern Peru and east through southern Venezuela and the Guianas into Brazil as far south as both banks of the Amazon River. P. b. major is found only in east-central Brazil south of the Amazon River and east of the lower Tapajós River. The species mostly inhabits the understory of terra firme forest and adjacent semi-deciduous and foothill forests. It can occasionally be found in other landscapes such as várzea forest, bamboo thickets, plantations, and secondary forest. In elevation it ranges as high as 1,600 m (5,200 ft), in southern Venezuela.

The straight-billed hermit is a "trap-line" feeder like other hermit hummingbirds, visiting a circuit of a variety of flowering plants for nectar. It also consumes small arthropods.