The beautiful sheartail or beautiful hummingbird (''Calothorax pulcher'') is a species of

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

in tribe Mellisugini of subfamily Trochilinae, the "bee hummingbirds". It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The beautiful sheartail shares genus ''Calothorax'' with the

Lucifer sheartail The lucifer sheartail or lucifer hummingbird (''Calothorax lucifer'') is a medium-sized, 10 cm long, green hummingbird with a slightly curved bill and distinctive outward flare of its gorget feathers. Its habitat is in high-altitude areas of ...

(''C. lucifer''). It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

Description

The beautiful sheartail is long and weighs about . Both sexes have a long, slightly decurved, black bill. Males have metallic bronze green upperparts and a white stripe behind the eye. Their

gorget A gorget , from the French ' meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the thro ...

is metallic magenta purple that is more violet and blue to the rear; the rear feathers are elongated. The breast is grayish white, the flanks metallic bronze green, and the undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

white. The tail is long and forked. The central two pairs of feathers are metallic bronze green and the other three pairs bronzy black. The female's upperparts are also metallic bronze green that is duller on the crown. The underparts are pale grayish buff with cinnamon buff flanks. The tail is shorter than the male's and rounded. Its central two pairs of feathers are bright bronze green. The three outer pairs have light cinnamon rufous bases and the balance is black but for white tips on the outer two pairs.Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, T. Johnson, and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Beautiful Hummingbird (''Calothorax pulcher''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.beahum1.01 retrieved July 26, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The beautiful sheartail is found only in south central Mexico, from central Guerrero and southern

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

south to

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...

. It inhabits arid and semiarid scrublands, semi-open areas with trees and shrubs, and gallery forest, mostly within interior valleys. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The beautiful sheartail is generally thought to be a year-round resident, but a few relocate to near sea level in Oaxaca after breeding.

Feeding

The beautiful sheartail mostly forages close to the ground but will feed at any height vegetation. It takes nectar from a wide variety of plants though details are lacking. Its close relative the Lucifer hummingbird defends patches of flowers. In addition to feeding on nectar, the beautiful sheartail takes small insects by

hawking Hawking may refer to: People * Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist *Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name) Film * ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Haw ...

from a perch.

Breeding

Male beautiful sheartails make a courtship display by rocking back and forth in front of the female and then making a diving and swooping flight. Their breeding season appears to span from May to November. One nest was a cup made from fine plant down with

pappi In Asteraceae, the pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual floret, that surrounds the base of the corolla tube in flower. It functions as a wind-dispersal mechanism for the seeds. The term is sometimes used for similar s ...

on the outside and held to a branch with spiderweb. The clutch was two eggs. Little else is known about the species' breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

Vocalization

During the flight section of the courtship display, the male beautiful sheartail repeats "a very high, thin to slightly squeaky ''t-swiik t-swiik'' ... or ''w-siiu w-siiu'' ...". The species' call is "high, twittering chips".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the beautiful sheartail as being of Least Concern. It has a fairly large range and an estimated population of between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals. However, the population is believed to be decreasing. No specific threats have been identified.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1271426 beautiful sheartail Birds of Mexico Endemic birds of Mexico beautiful sheartail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Birds of the Sierra Madre del Sur