The glittering-bellied emerald (''Chlorostilbon lucidus'') 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 found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The glittering-bellied emerald was widely called by the

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Chlorostilbon aureoventris'', but in 2006 J.F. Pacheco and B.M. Whitney showed that ''lucidus'' is the correct

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

due to the

Principal of priority Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the office holder/ or boss in any school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level ...

. 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) assigns three subspecies to the glittering-bellied emerald: 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 ...

''C. l. lucidus'', ''C. l. pucherani'', and ''C. l. beflepschi''. 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 ...

and

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 ...

add ''C. l. igneous'', whose population the IOC includes in the nominate.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 Some ornithologists believe that ''pucherani'' is "approching the species threshold".Bündgen, R., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Glittering-bellied Emerald (''Chlorostilbon lucidus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.glbeme1.01 retrieved August 1, 2022

Description

The male glittering-bellied emerald is long and weighs . Females are long and weigh . Both sexes have a short straight bill. The male's is red with a black tip; the female's is black on its outer half and red on the inner. Males of the nominate subspecies have a dull bronzy green forehead and crown, slightly golden green upperparts, grass green 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 ...

, and a slightly forked dark steely blue tail. It has a blue-green throat and upper breast and a bronze to bronzy green belly that is more iridescent than the upperparts. The nominate female's forehead, crown, and upperparts are slightly golden green and its uppertail coverts grass green. The innermost pair of tail feathers have green inner and blue outer halves. The other four pairs are steel blue with gray tips in a V shape. It has a grayish white streak behind the eye and a whitish throat that darkens to pale brownish gray on the breast and belly. Subspecies ''C. l. beflepschi'' has pure green rather than golden green upperparts. ''C. l. pucherani'' has the same plumage as the nominate but is slightly smaller. When considered separately, ''C. l. igneous'' has many glittering orange-gold speckles on its belly.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''C. l. pucherani'' of glittering-bellied emerald is found in eastern Brazil from

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

and

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

all the way south to Paraná. The nominate ''C. l. lucidus'' is found in eastern Bolivia, Parguay, and southwestern Brazil including

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP. Neighboring ...

. ''C. l. igneous'', when treated separately from the nominate, is found in western and northern Argentina. ''C. l. beflepschi'' is found from

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

in southeastern Brazil through Uruguay into northeastern Argentina to

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

. The species has also been recorded as a vagrant in Chile and Peru.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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 24, 2022 The glittering-bellied emerald inhabits a variety of semi-arid to somewhat humid, open to semi-open landscapes. It occurs in scrublands, savanna, grasslands, the edges of forest, and in parks and gardens. In elevation it ranges from sea level to but is most common between .

Behavior

Movement

The glittering-bellied emerald is sedentary, but vagrancy has been documented.

Feeding

The glittering-bellied emerald forages for nectar 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 wide variety of flowering plants. In addition to taking nectar from the flower opening, it pierces the bases of some kinds to obtain it. It generally forages between above the ground. It captures small insects 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 Ha ...

from a perch and has been observed taking insect honeydew.

Breeding

The glittering-bellied emerald's breeding season spans at least from August to February. It makes a cup nest of fine plant fibers and bark strips held together by spiderweb, lined with softer material, and covered on the outside with lichen and other camouflage. It typically places it on a thin branch in a small tree but nests have also been found attached to exposed roots 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 glittering-bellied emerald's song is "a high-pitched, cricket-like trill...repeated at intervals." Its principal call, given when feeding or hovering, is "a short dry, scratchy rattle, 'trrrr' or 'krrr'." It also makes "a fast descending series of 'tsee-tsee-tsee-tsu-tsew-tsew-tsew' notes" during

agonistic An agonist is a chemical that activates a receptor to produce a biological response. Receptors are cellular proteins whose activation causes the cell to modify what it is currently doing. In contrast, an antagonist blocks the action of the agon ...

encounters.

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 glittering-bellied emerald as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range but its population size and trend are not known. No specific threats have been identified. It is considered common throughout its range and is the most often seen hummingbird in its part of Argentina. It occurs in several protected areas and is accustomed to gardens, parks, and plantations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1262955

glittering-bellied emerald The glittering-bellied emerald (''Chlorostilbon lucidus'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.HBW and BirdLife Internationa ...

Birds of Argentina Birds of Bolivia Birds of Brazil Birds of Paraguay Birds of Uruguay

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot