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a female Amethyst-throated Sunangel (Heliangelus amethysticollis) sleeps in Peru. (check out pictures added below) EDIT #2 (2-Mar-2012): Explanation of the birds behavior: “This certainly looks like a bird in deep torpor that is starting to arouse. Quite a few years ago I worked on torpor metabolism in broad-tailed hummers in Colorado, and this is what they looked like. I don’t recall any of the broad-tails doing that bill-gaping behavior but my guess is that this bird is doing exactly what you suspect: it’s in the early stages of arousal from torpor after disturbance. The gaping might be a way to breath deeply and bring in plenty of oxygen: when they are disturbed in torpor, they ’try’ to warm up as quickly as possible and that involves intense shivering. But initially, they are too cold for high-speed muscle action so it’s hard to see the shivering movements.“ The high pitched squeaking sound it is making is likely a cute side-effect of the gaping for oxygen.
