Jamaican mango
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The Jamaican mango (''Anthracothorax mango'') 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
subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
Polytminae Polytminae is one of the six subfamilies of the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The subfamily contains 12 genera with a total of 29 species. The informal name "mangoes" has been proposed for this group as the seven species in the largest genus, ...
. 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 ...
to
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
.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 May 27, 2021


Taxonomy

The Jamaican mango was formally described by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
'' under the
binomial 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 ...
''Trochilus mango''. Linnaeus based his description on the "Mango bird" that had been described and illustrated in 1738 by the English naturalist
Eleazar Albin Eleazar Albin ( fl. 1690 – c. 1742)Michael A. Salmon, Peter Marren, Basil Harley. ''The Aurelian Legacy'' (University of California Press, 2000) pp. 109-110. was an English naturalist and watercolourist illustrator who wrote and illustrat ...
. The Jamaican mango is now 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 ...
''
Anthracothorax The mangos, ''Anthracothorax'', are a genus of hummingbirds in the subfamily Trochilinae native to the Neotropics. The genus ''Anthracothorax'' was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1831. The type species was subsequently d ...
'' that was introduced in 1831 by
Friedrich Boie Friedrich Boie (4 June 1789 – 3 March 1870) was a German entomologist, herpetologist, ornithologist, and lawyer.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University ...
. The species is
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 ...
: No
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
are recognized. There is some evidence that the species is the most basal within the genus ''Anthracothorax''.Schuchmann, K.L., P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Jamaican Mango (''Anthracothorax mango''), 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.jamman1.01 retrieved January 18, 2022


Description

The Jamaican mango is long and weighs . It differs from all others of its genus by being dark overall rather than mostly bright green. The adult male's crown is dull green, the sides of the head and neck metallic magenta, and the back dull greenish bronze. The central tail feathers are dusky bronze to dull black and the rest metallic violet with a thin dark blue band. The underparts are velvety black. The adult female is similar but with faded velvety green flanks and white tips on the outer tail feathers. The immature male has a deep blue throat that becomes the adult's black after its second year.


Distribution and habitat

The Jamaican mango is found throughout the eponymous island, with the densest population being along the northern coast. It inhabits a wide variety of open and semi-open landscapes including forest edges, gardens, plantations, and arid areas. It shuns
mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
areas. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to and is regular but rare as high as .


Behavior


Movement

The Jamaican mango moves from the higher elevations to mid levels in June to August after the upper flowering season ends.


Feeding

The Jamaican mango feeds on both nectar and
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 ...
s. It takes nectar from a large variety of flowering trees, shrubs, and vines, both native and introduced. Males defend flowering trees. Insects are mostly taken on the wing.


Breeding

The Jamaican mango nests at any time of the year, though most frequently between January and May. It weaves a small cup nest of soft plant fibers and seed down with spider silk on a thick tree branch, typically between above the ground. The clutch size is two eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.


Vocalization

The Jamaican mango is not highly vocal and its song has not been described. Its call is "a sharp, raspy 'tic...tic...tic'."


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 Jamaican mango as being of Least Concern, though its population size and trend are not known. It is a common resident throughout the island. "Ready occupation of man-made habitats suggests that habitat loss is unlikely to be a problem."


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q549247 Jamaican mango Endemic birds of Jamaica Birds of Jamaica Jamaican mango Jamaican mango Taxonomy articles created by Polbot