The green-bellied hummingbird (''Saucerottia viridigaster'') is a species 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 "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The green-bellied hummingbird was formerly placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Amazilia ''Amazilia'' is a hummingbird genus in the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical Central and South America. Taxonomy The genus ''Amazilia'' was introduced in 1843 by the French naturalist René Lesson. Lesson had used ''amazilia'' i ...

''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 found that the genus ''Amazilia'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

. In the revised classification to create

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

genera, the green-bellied hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to the resurrected genus ''

Saucerottia ''Saucerottia'' is a genus of birds in the family Trochilidae, or hummingbirds. Species The species now placed in this genus were formerly placed in ''Amazilia''. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus ''Amazilia' ...

''.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 The green-bellied hummingbird previously was assigned six subspecies. By early 2023 most taxonomic systems had created the copper-tailed hummingbird (''S. cupreicauda'') containing four of them. They retain the other two subspecies in the green-bellied, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

''S. v. viridigaster'' ( Bourcier, 1843) and ''S. v. iodura'' ( Reichenbach, 1854). However, the South 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 ...

does not recognize the copper-tailed hummingbird as a separate species.

Description

The green-bellied hummingbird is long and weighs . Both sexes of both subspecies have a straight, medium length, blackish bill with a pink to reddish base to 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 tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a dull golden-green head and back and olive green to brownish rump and uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

; the last sometimes have a purplish tinge. Their wings are dark purple brown and their tail deep blue to violet blue. Their underparts are a dark shining green becoming grayish brown at the vent. Their undertail coverts are grayish buff with paler edges. Adult females are similar to males with the addition of white fringes on the throat feathers and bronze or brownish edges to the tail feathers. Juveniles resemble females but have grayish brown or brownish gray underparts. Subspecies ''S. v. iodura'' has a coppery to purple tail and is otherwise like the nominate.Greeney, H. F., P. F. D. Boesman, and A.A. Weller (2022). Green-bellied Hummingbird (''Saucerottia viridigaster''), version 1.2. In Birds of the World (H. F. Greeney, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grbhum1.01.2 retrieved February 1, 2023

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''S. v. viridigaster'' of the green-bellied hummingbird is found in north-central Colombia on the east slope of the Eastern Andes. ''S. v. iodura'' is found in the Andes of western Venezuela. The species inhabits a variety of semi-open to open subtropical landscapes including the edges of

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

, plantations, scrub- and brushlands, river islands, and low

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

. It mostly occurs on the lower to middle slopes of the Andes at elevations between .

Behavior

Movement

The green-bellied hummingbird is basically sedentary but makes local movements to follow the availability of nectar sources.

Feeding

The green-bellied hummingbird's foraging strategy and details of its diet are not well documented. It is known to take nectar from the flowers of ''

Quararibea ''Quararibea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae. Species include: *''Quararibea asterolepis'' *''Quararibea aurantiocalyx'' *''Quararibea cordata'' *'' Quararibea dolichopoda'' *'' Quararibea dolichosiphon'' *'' Quararibea ...

'', ''

Inga ''Inga'' is a genus of small tropical, tough-leaved, nitrogen-fixing treesElkan, Daniel. "Slash-and-burn farming has become a major threat to the world's rainforest" ''The Guardian'' 21 April 2004 and shrubs, subfamily Mimosoideae. ''Inga''s l ...

'', and ''

Erythrina ''Erythrina'' is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to in height. The generic na ...

'' and has been photographed feeding at many other plants. It has been observed in large groups at flowering trees. In addition to necatar it feeds on small

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

Breeding

The green-bellied hummingbird's breeding season appears to span at least from October to January. The one known nest was a cup made of buffy seed down with bits of lichen on the outside and sited on a horizontal tree branch. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

The green-bellied hummingbird's song has been variously described as " a short dainty phrase which is repeated several times...''tee-tee-dji-dji'' or ''tee-dji-tee-dji''" and also as "a waif-like ''ta-da titi-da''". Calls include a "short high-pitched buzzy note...''tzree..tzree..tzree...''" and a "fast stuttered descending series...''TSEe-tsee-tsi-tsi-ti-ti''".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the green-bellied hummingbird as being of Least Concern, though its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing due to habitat destruction. No specific threats have been identified. The species is considered uncommon to fairly common in Colombia but its abundance in Venezuela is not known. "It is also frequently seen along forest edges and in areas of anthropogenic disturbance, and is thus may not be as severely impacted by human habitat alteration as some species."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q941990

green-bellied hummingbird The green-bellied hummingbird (''Saucerottia viridigaster'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the B ...

Hummingbird species of South America Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Venezuelan Andes

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot