The booted racket-tails are a small group 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 ...

s in the genus ''Ocreatus'' that was long considered to have only one species, ''O. underwoodii''. They are native to

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

edges in the South American

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and Maritime Andes. They are relatively small (even compared to most other hummingbirds) and primarily iridescent green with white or rufous-buff leg-puffs ("boots"). The leg-puffs are more conspicuous in males, which also have a pair of dark bluish

racket Racket may refer to: * Racket (crime), a systematised element of organized crime ** Protection racket, a scheme whereby a group provides protection to businesses or other groups through violence outside the sanction of the law * Racket (sports equ ...

-shaped extensions to the tail.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Ocreatus'' was described by John Gould in 1846. During the 19th century, several populations were described as different species, but since the mid-20th century authorities generally only recognized a single widespread species, ''O. underwoodii'', with several

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

. Research published in 2016, however, argued that three subspecies groups, ''addae'', ''annae'' and ''peruanus'', that are mostly

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

(only ''peruanus'' and ''underwoodii'' have ranges that are known to very locally come into contact) were sufficiently different for raising them to species level. The research results have been mostly accepted by the

International Ornithological Union The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

, with more data required for the species status of Anna's racket-tail (''annae''), which they instead regard as a subspecies of ''O. addae''. The

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

has yet to recognize the split and continue to place all in a single widespread species.

Species

The genus contains three species:

Taxonomy

Species

References

See also