Abstract
Egg collections represent a critical, though underutilized, source of sensitive biological data about a substantial proportion of avian taxa, and can help expand our knowledge of avian natural history and general biology. The breeding biology of the genus Chaetocercus remains considerably poorly studied, in particular of the Red-shafted Woodstar (Chaetocercus jourdanii). In this short note, we provide descriptions of the egg and nest of the Red-shafted Woodstar, based on the examination of eggs and nests preserved in the Western Foundation of Zoology (WFVZ) and Natural History Museum of Berlin (ZMB), respectively. The nest is typical for the genus Chaetocercus, a tiny cup composed predominantly of fine plant fibres and evenly covered externally with lichens. Eggs were collected in February and April, and clutches consisted of two uniform white eggs measuring, on average, 12.58 ± 0.18 mm × 7.74 ± 0.29 mm (n = 7). In addition, we provide a brief literature review about the basic breeding habits for the congeneric species, where we expand the information available for the closely related Gorgeted Woodstar (C. heliodor) by using additional nests from the ZMB collection.
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