''Discosura'' is a genus 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 family

Trochilidae 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 arou ...

. The thorntails are sometimes placed in the genus ''Popelairia'' ( Reichenbach, 1854), leaving ''Discosura'' for the racket-tailed coquette. On the contrary, some have argued for merging this genus into ''

Lophornis ''Lophornis'' is a genus of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. These are all tiny birds, ranking among the smallest hummingbirds. No species exceeds and most are under in total length, weighing 3 grams or less. The male coquettes are noted ...

'', which they overall resemble, except for the highly modified tail-feathers of the males.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Discosura'' was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

. Bonaparte did not specify a

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 ...

but this was designated as the

racket-tailed coquette The racket-tailed coquette (''Discosura longicaudus''; sometimes ''Discosura longicauda'') is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae native to northern South America. Taxonomy The racket-tailed coquette was formally described in 178 ...

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...

in 1855. The genus 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 ...

''diskos'' meaning "plate" with ''oura'' meaning "tail". The genus contains five species.

References

Hummingbirds Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{hummingbird-stub