Frilled coquette

The frilled coquette is a tiny species of hummingbird that is strictly endemic to the country of Brazil. It is most commonly found in the Atlantic Forest region along the eastern coast of the country, favoring humid forests and adjacent second-growth woodlands.

The male is famous for its magnificent, bright orange crest that looks like a punk-rock mohawk extending from its head. It also features a prominent, frilly white collar of feathers around its neck, which is exactly how the bird gets its descriptive name.

The scientific name for the frilled coquette is Lophornis magnificus. It sits within the Lophornis genus, a group of tiny hummingbirds widely known as the coquettes, which are celebrated for their ornate crests.

The species was officially described and cataloged for western science by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in the year 1817. Vieillot was a pioneer in natural history, responsible for naming dozens of bird species during his studies of specimens from the New World.