Brace's emerald (''Riccordia bracei'') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of hummingbird which was

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 ...

to the main island of the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

New Providence New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246 ...

Description

Its size was 9.5 cm, the wing length 11.4 cm and length of the tail 2.7 cm. The black

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

was slightly curved and conical pointed. The feet were black. The back exhibited a bronze green hue with a golden gleam. The head was similarly coloured to the back, with the absence of the golden gloss. Directly behind the eyes was a white spot. The throat gleamed in magnificent blue green colour hues. The abdomen had green

feathers Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier e ...

with ash-grey tips. The wings exhibited a purplish hue. The rectrices were greenish. The crissum (the undertail covert which surrounded the cloacal opening) was grey with a faint cinnamon hue at the edges.

Status and extinction

For more than a hundred years, Brace's emerald was only known by the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

, one single male which was shot by bird collector Lewis J. K. Brace on July 13, 1877 around three miles (4.8 kilometres) away from

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 *Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...

on the island of New Providence. The skin (which is unfortunately heavily damaged at the throat) is now at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The species was long ignored by ornithological authorities. In 1880 it was listed without commentary as a synonym of the

Cuban emerald The Cuban emerald (''Riccordia ricordii'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in the Bahamas and Cuba. Taxonomy and systematics The Cuban emerald was formerly placed in the ge ...

(''Riccordia ricordii''). Not until the 1930s was the unique status of the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

even recognized, as it was seen as an aberrant specimen of the Cuban emerald that had become a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

to New Providence. American ornithologist

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

was the first to discuss the differences between ''R. ricordii'' and ''R. bracei''. In 1945, he split ''R. ricordii'' and regarded ''R. ricordii bracei'' as a new subspecies. In contrast to the Cuban species, the specimen from New Providence was smaller, had a longer bill and a different plumage. In 1982, palaeornithologists William Hilgartner and

Storrs Olson Storrs Lovejoy Olson (April 3, 1944 – January 20, 2021) was an American biologist and ornithologist who spent his career at the Smithsonian Institution, retiring in 2008. One of the world's foremost avian paleontologists, he was best known ...

discovered fossil remains of three hummingbird species from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

in the deposits in a cave of New Providence. These were the

Bahama woodstar The Bahama woodstar or Bahama hummingbird (''Nesophlox evelynae'') is a species of hummingbird endemic to the Lucayan archipelago, including the Bahamian and Turks and Caicos islands. It is named the "hummer" by locals due to a distinct humming ...

(''Nesophlox evelynae''), Cuban emerald (''Riccordia ricordii''), and another species, which was later identified as ''Riccordia bracei''. This provided evidence that Brace had discovered a new hummingbird species which lived on New Providence since the Pleistocene. It formed a

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

population, and most likely due to habitat loss and human disturbance (e.g. agriculture), it became extinct at the end of the 19th century.

References

External links

Chlorostilbon bracei Lawrence, an extinct species of Hummingbird from New Providence Island, Bahamas
(PDF, Fulltext, Engl.) {{Taxonbar, from=Q137848

Brace's emerald Brace's emerald (''Riccordia bracei'') is an extinct species of hummingbird which was endemic to the main island of the Bahamas, New Providence. Description Its size was 9.5 cm, the wing length 11.4 cm and length of the tail 2.7 c ...

Birds of the Bahamas Extinct birds of the Caribbean Bird extinctions since 1500

Endemic birds of the Bahamas Species known from a single specimen

Description

Status and extinction

References

Further reading

External links