The blue-tailed hummingbird (''Saucerottia cyanura'') 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 the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

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 ...

, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The blue-tailed hummingbird was formerly placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Amazilia ''Amazilia'' is a hummingbird genus in the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical Central and South America. Taxonomy The genus ''Amazilia'' was introduced in 1843 by the French naturalist René Lesson. Lesson had used ''amazilia'' i ...

''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 found that the genus ''Amazilia'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

. In the revised classification to create

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

genera, the blue-tailed hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to the resurrected genus ''

Saucerottia ''Saucerottia'' is a genus of birds in the family Trochilidae, or hummingbirds. Species The species now placed in this genus were formerly placed in ''Amazilia''. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus ''Amazilia' ...

''.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021 However,

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' retains it in ''Amazilia''. Three subspecies are recognized, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

''S. c. cyanura'', ''S. c. guatemalae'', and ''S. c. impatiens''.

Description

The blue-tailed hummingbird is long. One male specimen weighed and females weigh about . Both sexes of all subspecies have a black bill with a reddish base to the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

. Males of the nominate subspecies have a deep metallic green crown and back, a dull purplish bronze rump, and dark metallic bluish uppertail

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 ...

. Their

primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

and secondaries are chestnut and show as a patch on the closed wing. Their tail is dark metallic violet blue. Their underparts are mostly bright metallic green with dull steel blue undertail coverts. Females are similar to males but duller. Their rump is less purplish and their underparts' feathers usually have narrow whitish margins. Their belly has some dull buffy whitish mixed in and their undertail coverts are grayish.Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, and T. S. Schulenberg (2021). Blue-tailed Hummingbird (''Saucerottia cyanura''), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blthum1.01.1 retrieved September 6, 2022 Subspecies ''S. c. guatemalae'' is much darker than the nominate. The chestnut on the wings is darker, the tail's blue more violaceous to metallic purple, and the undertail coverts dark steel blue to blue-black. ''S. c. impatiens'' is somewhat larger than the nominate. Its head and back are darker green, the rufous or cinnamon patch on the wings is larger, and the undertail coverts are dull steel blue with rich ferruginous edges.

Distribution and habitat

The blue-tailed hummingbird subspecies ''S. c. guatemalae'' is found on the Pacific slope from southeastern

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

in Mexico to southern Guatemala. The nominate ''S. c. cyanura'' is found in southern Honduras, eastern El Salvador, and northwestern Nicaragua. ''S. c. impatiens'' is found in northwestern and central

. (The map omits this last subspecies' range.) It inhabits a variety of semi-open landscapes such as the edges and clearings of humid and dry oak and pine forest,

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

, scrublands, and shade coffee plantations. In elevation it ranges between in Mexico and Guatemala and from near sea level to in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Behavior

Movement

The blue-tailed hummingbird's movements, if any, have not been documented.

Feeding

The blue-tailed hummingbird forages for nectar at all levels of its habitat. Though details of its diet are lacking, it is known to frequent ''

Inga ''Inga'' is a genus of small tropical, tough-leaved, nitrogen-fixing treesElkan, Daniel. "Slash-and-burn farming has become a major threat to the world's rainforest" ''The Guardian'' 21 April 2004 and shrubs, subfamily Mimosoideae. ''Inga''s l ...

'' trees. It is assumed to also consume insects like other hummingbirds.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the blue-tailed hummingbird's 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 ...

. Its nest and eggs have not been described.

Vocalization

The blue-tailed hummingbird's song is "a short twitter". Its calls include "a hard, raspy ''bzzzrt'' ... hard chips, and high, sharp ''siik!'', the last of which it makes in flight.

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 blue-tailed hummingbird as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. No immeditate threats have been identified. "Human activity probably has little short term effect on heBlue-tailed Hummingbird."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q730279 Saucerottia Birds of Mexico Birds of Central America Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of El Salvador Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica Central American dry forests Birds described in 1859 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by John Gould Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN