The Cozumel emerald (''Cynanthus forficatus'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is

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 else ...

to the Mexican island of

Cozumel Cozumel (; yua, Kùutsmil) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucat� ...

off the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Cozumel emerald's taxonomic history is complicated. It was originally described as ''Chlorostilbon forficatus'', then as a subspecies of

golden-crowned emerald The golden-crowned emerald (''Cynanthus auriceps'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is endemic to western Mexico.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the ...

(now ''Cynanthus auriceps'') which itself has been treated as a subspecies of Canivet's emerald (now ''Cynanthus canivetii''). Other more recent authors include it and many other taxa as subspecies of the

blue-tailed emerald The blue-tailed emerald (''Chlorostilbon mellisugus'') is a hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical and subtropical South America east of the Andes from Colombia east to the Guianas and ...

(''Chlorostilbon mellisugus'').Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, and T. S. Schulenberg (2021). Cozumel Emerald (''Cynanthus forficatus''), 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.cozeme1.01.1 retrieved July 30, 2022 The North American Classification Committee of 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 ...

, the

International Ornithological Committee 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 ...

(IOC), and the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...

assign it the binomial ''Cynanthus forficatus''. However, as of 2020 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) retains it in genus ''Chlorostilbon''.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

Description

Male Cozumel emeralds are long and females . Males and females both weigh about . Males have a black bill with a red tip. Its crown is bright golden to golden green and the rest of the upperparts a slightly duller golden green. Its underparts are brilliant metallic golden green with white tibal tufts. The tail is long and deeply forked, blue-black or black with a blue gloss, and the central two or three pairs of feathers have dark brownish gray tips. The female's

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. T ...

is black and 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 teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

red with a black tip. Its upperparts are bright metallic green to bronze green. It has a white stripe behind the eye and blackish cheeks. Its underparts are light gray. Its tail is not as long or deeply forked as the male's. The central pair of feathers are metallic green to blue green and the next two pairs are the same color with a blue-black or black band near the end and white tips. The outermost two pairs have white outer webs at their base, a wide black band near the end, and white tips.

Distribution and habitat

The Cozumel emerald is found essentially only on Cozumel Island of the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. There is a single specimen from

Isla Mujeres Isla Mujeres (, Spanish for "Women Island" (formally “Isla de Mujeres”) is an island where the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea meet, about off the Yucatán Peninsula coast in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is approximately long ...

about north of Cozumel, and the species is thought to occasionally visit there. Authors have described its habitat as "scrub and low deciduous insular forest" and "brushy woodland and scrub, second growth".

Behavior

Movement

The Cozumel emerald is a year-round resident of the island.

Feeding

The Cozumel emerald's feeding strategy and diet have not been detailed. They are assumed to be similar to those of Canivet's emerald, which forages by

trap-lining In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually seen in species ...

, visiting a circuit of a variety of flowering plants, and also feeds on small

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

Breeding

The Cozumel emerald's breeding season, nest, and other details of its breeding phenology have not been described.

Vocalization

The Cozumel emerald's vocalizations are described as similar to those of it close relatives, "dry, rattling and chattering calls".

Status

The IUCN has assessed the Cozumel emerald as being of Least Concern. It has an estimated population between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals that is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is described as fairly common to common and " man activity probably has little short term effect on heCozumel Emerald, which occupies edge and disturbed habitats."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266791 Cozumel emerald Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Endemic fauna of Cozumel Endemic birds of Southern Mexico Cozumel emerald Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Robert Ridgway Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN