The Tres Marías hummingbird (''Cynanthus lawrencei'') is a

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify f ...

species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the broad-billed hummingbird. 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 else ...

to the

Islas Marías The Islas Marías ("Mary Islands") are an archipelago of four islands that belong to Mexico. They are located in the Pacific Ocean, some off the coast of the state of Nayarit and about southeast of the tip of Baja California. They are part of t ...

island group off the west coast of Mexico.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The Tres Marias hummingbird was long treated as a subspecies of the broad-billed hummingbird. Based on 2014 and 2017 publications, by the end of 2022 the North 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 ...

(AOS), 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), BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW), 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 202 ...

had recognized it as a species.Clements, 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 Tres Marias hummingbird 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 "unispe ...

Description

The Tres Marias hummingbird has a broad reddish bill with a black tip. Both sexes have metallic bronze-green upperparts that is somewhat duller on the forehead and crown. Males have a turquoise-green to emerald green throat, a greeny-bronze breast, a dark green belly, and dark 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 s ...

. The tail is glossy blue-black. Females' upperparts are duller than the male's and they have gray underparts. The base of their tail is bronze-green and the rest blue-black to greenish black with white tips on the outermost two pairs of feathers.Powers, D. R. and S. M. Wethington (2021). Broad-billed Hummingbird (''Cynanthus latirostris''), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.brbhum.01.1 retrieved August 24, 2022

Distribution

The Tres Marias hummingbird is found only on María Madre and María Cleofás of the Islas Marías, an island group off the coast of

Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...

, Mexico. Their specific habitat there has not been described.

Behavior

Movement

The Tres Marias hummingbird is mostly sedentary but individuals have been collected in mainland Nayarit.

Feeding

The diet of the Tres Marias hummingbird has not separately described from that of the broad-billed hummingbird. In general, and like most hummingbirds, that species feeds on a wide variety of flowering plants and also small

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

Breeding

No specifics of the Tres Marias hummingbird's breeding phenology have been published.

Vocalization

The Tres Marias hummingbird's vocalizations have not been separately described from those of the broad-billed hummingbird. That species' song, sung only by males, " gins with short chip note, then a series of similar notes ranging in frequency from 2 to 13 kHz."

Status

The IUCN has assessed the Tres Marias hummingbird as Near Threatened. It has a very small range and an estimated population of under 2500 mature individuals, though the population is believed to be stable. The potential threats include habitat destruction through urbanization, farming, and wood-cutting, and predation by invasive species.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:hummingbird, Tres Marías Tres Marías hummingbird Endemic birds of Western Mexico Fauna of Islas Marías Tres Marías hummingbird