Glow-throated Hummingbird

The glow-throated hummingbird is about 7 cm (2.8 in) long. Both sexes have a short, straight, black bill. The adult male has bronzy green upperparts and the tail feathers are black with rufous edges. Its gorget is pinkish red with a white foreneck below it. The center of the breast and belly are also white and the rest of the underparts buffy to cinnamon with green spangles and buffy white undertail coverts. Adult females are also bronzy green above. Their central tail feathers are green; the rest have rufous bases, a black band near the end, and deep buffy tips. The throat is pale buff with grayish speckles and the rest of the underparts are like the male's. Immature birds resemble adult females but have rusty fringes on their head and nape feathers and more green on the tail.

The glow-throated hummingbird is found only in west-central Panama's Chiriquí and Veraguas provinces. It was historically found more widely in Serranía de Tabasará but since the early 20th century is known only from Cerro Colorado and Cerro Flores in Chiriquí and Cerro Tute and the Santa Fé district in Veraguas. There are unsatisfactory sight records from the Azuero Peninsula, where its presence is considered hypothetical. It inhabits the edges and clearings of Talamancan montane forest at elevations between 750 and 1,800 m (2,500 and 5,900 ft).

Nothing is known about the foraging behavior or diet of the glow-throated hummingbird. Both are assumed to be similar to that of its close relative, the scintillant hummingbird (S. scintilla). That species, like most hummingbirds, feeds on nectar from flowers and on small insects.