Green-fronted Lancebill (Doryfera ludovicae) [XC260464]
by Hans Matheve from Napo: upper Cordillera de los Huacamayos, Ecuador (call, feeding calls)
Green-fronted Lancebill (Doryfera ludovicae) [XC64521]
by Oswaldo Cortes from Milpe, Pichincha, Ecuador (call)
Subspecies
Genus formerly placed in subfamily Phaethornithinae, due largely to confusion regarding its nest and now known to be part of the basal radiation of the Trochilinae. In many older works generic name Hemistephania was used.
Two proposed subspecies, rectirostris (western Andes of Colombia and north-western Ecuador) and grisea (north-western Bolivia), now usually subsumed into nominate subspecies. The former differs only in bill averaging longer, but with wide overlap, and the latter based on characters of an immature male, birds of this age being indistinguishable from those of nominate. Species name sometimes misspelt ludoviciae.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
veraguensis Salvin, 1867 - North-central Costa Rica to western Panama.
ludovicae (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1847) - Extreme eastern Panama (Cerro Tacarcuna), Colombia and western Venezuela south through Andes to north-western Bolivia (eastern slope only from central Ecuador southwards).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet