The green-tailed emerald (''Chlorostilbon alice'') is a

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 ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The green-tailed emerald was originally described as ''Trochilus alice'' and later moved to its present genus ''Chlorostilbon''.Bündgen, R., P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Green-tailed Emerald (''Chlorostilbon alice''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grteme1.01 retrieved August 3, 2022 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 ...

, 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 2022 ...

recognize it as a

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 ...

species. However,

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

treats it as a subspecies of the short-tailed emerald, (''C. poortmani''). At least one author has suggested that it is a subspecies of narrow-tailed emerald (''C. stenurus'').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 24 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022Clements, 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

The male green-tailed emerald is long and females . The species weighs between . Both sexes have a short, straight, black bill. The male's forehead and crown are shining dark green, its upperparts bronzy green, its tail glittering bronze-green, and its underparts grass green. The female's upperparts are like the male's. It has a white line behind the eye. Its underparts are pale grayish and the undertail

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 ...

are dark gray. Its central tail feathers are green and the rest have green bases with black near the end and grayish tips. Immature birds resemble the female with buffy fringes on the feathers of the head.

Distribution and habitat

The green-tailed emerald is endemic to northern Venezuela, from

Falcón ) , anthem = , image_map = Falcon in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_mapsiz ...

south to Lara and

Sucre Sucre () is the Capital city, capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the List of cities in Bolivia, 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . T ...

and east to

Monagas ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Monagas'' , image_map = Monagas in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_m ...

. It inhabits the semi-open edges of a variety of forest types including semi-humid rainforest,

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

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. ...

, plantations, and sometimes dry forest. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The green-tailed emerald's movements are not well understood. It is not a long-distance migrant but makes irregular movements among locations and elevations.

Feeding

The green-tailed emerald uses a variety of foraging strategies to feed on nectar. It uses

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 ...

at low-quality sources and "steals" nectar from richer sources in other hummingbird's territories. Males sometimes defend nectar-rich feeding territories. The species forages fairly low in the vegetation, usually between above the ground, and seeks nectar at a variety of flowering plants and shrubs. In addition to nectar, it also feeds on small insects captured by

hawking Hawking may refer to: People * Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist *Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name) Film * ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Haw ...

from a perch.

Breeding

The green-tailed emerald's breeding season spans from January to March. It builds a cup nest of plant fibers, leaf bits, and bark lined with softer material and covered on the outside with leaf pieces and twigs. It typically places it as a saddle on a thin branch about above the ground. The female incubates the clutch of two eggs for about 14 days and fledging occurs 20 to 22 days after hatch.

Vocalization

The green-tailed emerald's song has apparently not been recorded or described, and there are few recordings of its call. It makes a " igh soft chittering while foraging".

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 ...

follows HBW taxonomy, and so has not assessed the green-tailed emerald separately from the more widespread short-tailed emerald. It has a restricted range and is considered locally common. It " adily accepts man-made habitats such as plantations, parks, gardens, and roadsides".

References

External links

PhotoArticle
lachuleta.net {{Taxonbar, from=Q259712 Chlorostilbon Birds of Venezuela Hummingbird species of South America Endemic birds of Venezuela Birds described in 1848 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN