The blue-vented hummingbird (''Saucerottia hoffmanni'') 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 ...

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-vented 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 ...

'' as a subspecies of the

steely-vented hummingbird The steely-vented hummingbird (''Saucerottia saucerottei'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The steely-vented hummingbir ...

(then ''Amazilia saucerottei'', now ''Saucerottia saucerottei''). 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, most taxonomic systems accepted the blue-vented hummingbird as a separate species and moved it 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 ...

'' (HBW) retains it as the steely-vented subspecies ''Amazilia saucerottei hoffmanni''. The blue-vented hummingbird 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 blue-vented hummingbird is long and weighs an average of . Both sexes have a straight bill with a blackish

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

and a coral-red

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 ...

with a dark tip. Adult males have golden-green upperparts with coppery to purplish rump and 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 underparts are dark glittering golden-green with greenish to steel blue undertail coverts. Their tail is pale steel blue and slightly forked. Adult females are similar but with a duller green lower breast and belly. Their throat feathers have white bars near the end, the feathers of their vent area have grayish-buff edges, and their outer tail feathers have purplish tips. Juveniles are darker than adults and duller green below with a grayish-brown belly. Their throat is darkish gray and their back and rump feathers have brownish edges.Weller, A.A., P. F. D. Boesman, and H. F. Greeney (2021). Blue-vented Hummingbird (''Saucerottia hoffmanni''), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.buvhum1.01.1 retrieved September 6, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The blue-vented hummingbird is found from southern Nicaragua to central Costa Rica. It inhabits semi-open landscapes such as scrublands, savanna, the edges of mature 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. ...

, and gardens. It tends to prefer dryish habitats except in the dry season, when it is found in moister areas. In elevation it ranges from sea level to at most .

Behavior

Movement

The blue-vented hummingbird makes local movements, in part to follow flowering events.

Feeding

The blue-vented hummingbird forages for nectar at a wide variety of plants, vines, shrubs, and trees. It tends to forage only as high as the tops of small trees and often defends feeding territories. In addition to nectar if feeds on insects that it captures on the wing and sometimes from the surface of water.

Breeding

Almost nothing is known about the blue-vented 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 ...

except that its breeding season appears to span at least from December to April. It builds a cup nest of plant down and cobweb with lichen on the outside. One nest in Costa Rica was on a dead ''

Cecropia ''Cecropia'' is a Neotropical genus consisting of 61 recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees. The genus consists of pioneer trees in the more or less humid parts of the Neotropics, with the majority of the speci ...

'' branch and another on a ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

'' vine.

Vocalization

The blue-vented hummingbird's song is "a repeated buzzy, squeaky phrase ''tzi-tzee-tzup'', sometimes followed by a few lower-pitched notes, ''tzi-tzee-tzup ... wut-chur-up''." It also makes calls described as "a high, sharp ''tsit'' or dry ''chit'', sometimes uttered in sputtering series."

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 ...

follows HBW taxonomy and so has not assessed the blue-vented hummingbird separately from the steely-vented hummingbird ''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q30587686

blue-vented hummingbird The blue-vented hummingbird (''Saucerottia hoffmanni'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Taxonomy and systematics The blue-vented hummingbird wa ...

Hummingbird species of Central America

Blue-vented hummingbird The blue-vented hummingbird (''Saucerottia hoffmanni'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Taxonomy and systematics The blue-vented hummingbird wa ...

Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN