Locally fairly common on open tepui summits and upper slopes but range-restricted and habitat-specific; a sought-after Pantepui endemic that requires getting up into open highland scrub.
Field marks
Medium green goldenthroat (11–12 cm, 4–6 g) with a rounded, conspicuously WHITE-TIPPED tail and a decurved black bill (reddish base in some). Male shows an iridescent yellow/golden throat patch; female bronze-tinged above and paler below. The white-tipped rounded tail + decurved bill on open tepui terrain is the key combination.
Habitat
Open cloud-forest edge, tepui-summit scrub, bushy grassland and rocky areas with scattered flowering shrubs, ~1,300–2,200 m.
Behavior
A trap-line nectar feeder visiting a circuit of flowering plants; also hawks insects in flight and gleans spiders from vegetation and rock cavities. Often low in open scrub rather than forest interior.
Voice
High thin chips and a dry, slightly buzzy twittering; relatively unobtrusive. Search 'Polytmus milleri' on Xeno-canto and Macaulay Library / eBird (eBird code tepgol1).
White-tailed Goldenthroat (Polytmus guainumbi) — lower-elevation savanna/llanos species, bolder white facial stripes; generally allopatric below the tepui zone.
Female emeralds and other green hummingbirds — separated by the rounded white-tipped tail, decurved bill and open-scrub habitat.
Guide note
CURRICULUM CORRECTION: the spec entry 'Tepui Whitetip (Urosticte/Eulampis)' does not exist — Urosticte whitetips are Andean (Colombia/Ecuador/Peru), not Pantepui. The real Pantepui-endemic hummingbird with a white-tipped tail is the Tepui Goldenthroat (Polytmus milleri), profiled here. Find it in open summit/upper-slope scrub on Roraima or the Gran Sabana, not in forest interior; teach trainees to use the white tail tips flashed in flight as the trigger mark.
