The sabrewings are relatively large Neotropical

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 that form the genus ''Campylopterus''. They are species of the understory and edges of forests, mostly in mountains, and often near streams. The female Sabrewing lays its two white eggs in a relatively large cup nest on a low horizontal branch, usually over a stream. The sabrewings are very large for hummingbirds, typically 12–15 cm long. The black bill is strong and slightly decurved. The shafts of the male's two outermost primary flight feathers are thickened, flattened and bent at an angle to give the distinctive feature which gives the sabrewings their

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and scientific names ( Greek καμπυλος ''kampylos'', "bent", and πτερον ''pteron'', "wing"). In some species, the male and female plumage is similar, in others, such as the

violet sabrewing The violet sabrewing (''Campylopterus hemileucurus'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found from Mexico to Panama.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of ...

, the sexes look completely different. In several species, the three outer pairs of the tail feathers are broadly tipped white. The food of sabrewings is nectar, taken mainly from undergrowth flowers such as ''

Heliconia ''Heliconia'', derived from the Greek word (), is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the ca 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the we ...

'' and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Campylopterus'' was erected by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

was subsequently designated as the grey-breasted sabrewing. The generic name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''kampulos'' meaning "curved" or "bent" and ''-pteros'' meaning "-winged". The sombre hummingbird and

swallow-tailed hummingbird The swallow-tailed hummingbird (''Eupetomena macroura'') is a species in the hummingbird family (Trochilidae), found mainly in east-central South America. Most authorities place it in the genus '' Eupetomena'', although some place it in '' Campyl ...

, formerly classified in ''Campylopterus'', have been reclassified by most authorities into their own

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 ...

genera ''Aphantochroa'' and ''Eupetomena''. The genus contains 10 species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q535829 *