The purple-throated sunbird (''Leptocoma sperata''), is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Nectariniidae. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are lowland

tropical forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fores ...

s and subtropical or tropical

mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...

of Maratua and the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The Van Hasselt's sunbird was previously considered conspecific.

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...

included a description of the purple-throated sunbird in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected in the Philippines. He used the French name ''Le grimpereau pourpré des Philippines'' and the Latin ''Certhia Philippensis Purpurea''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the

binomial system The binomial system ( es, Sistema binominal) is a voting system that was used in the legislative elections of Chile between 1989 and 2013. From an electoral system point of view, the binomial system is in effect the D'Hondt method with an ope ...

and are not recognised by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. When in 1766 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 ...

updated 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 ...

'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the purple-throated sunbird. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined 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 ...

''Certhia sperata'' and cited Brisson's work. Linnaeus specified the type location as the Philippines but this was subsequently restricted to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''sperata'' is Latin for "bride" or "betrothed". The species is now placed in the genus ''

Leptocoma ''Leptocoma'' is a genus of sunbirds found from tropical South Asia to Papua New Guinea. Its members are sometimes included in '' Nectarinia''. The sunbirds are a group of very small Old World passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, altho ...

'' that was introduced by the German ornithologist

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 18 ...

in 1850. Four subspecies are recognised: * ''L. s. henkei'' ( Meyer, AB, 1884) – north

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

* ''L. s. sperata'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – central and south Luzon, Polillo Island,

Marinduque Marinduque (; ), officially the Province of Marinduque, is an island province in the Philippines located in Southwestern Tagalog Region or Mimaropa, formerly designated as Region IV-B. Its capital is the municipality of Boac. Marinduque lies be ...

and Catanduanes (north Philippines) * ''L. s. trochilus'' ( Salomonsen, 1953) – west, central and south Philippines (except west and south

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

and Sulu Archipelago) * ''L. s. juliae'' (

Tweeddale Tweeddale (Scottish Gaelic: ''Srath Thuaidh/Tuaidhdail'') is a committee area and lieutenancy area in the Scottish Borders council area in south-eastern Scotland. It had also been a province in the Middle Ages. From 1975 to 1996 it was a local gov ...

, 1877) – west and south Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago

References

*Rasmussen, P.C., and J.C. Anderton. 2005. Birds of South Asia. The Ripley guide. Volume 2: attributes and status. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions, Washington D.C. and Barcelona.

External links

* * purple-throated sunbird Endemic birds of the Philippines purple-throated sunbird purple-throated sunbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Nectariniidae-stub