The whitetips are a small group 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 ...
s in the genus ''Urosticte'', which are restricted to humid forests growing on
Andean
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...
slopes in north-western
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. Their
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
, whitetips, refers to the conspicuous white tips on the central
rectrices
Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail ...
of the males. As the central rectrices are shorter than the outer, it appears as a large white spot on the central uppertail. Females, which have green-spotted white underparts, lack the white tips to the central rectrices, but instead have broad tips to the outer rectrices (white "tail-corners").
In this genus, the
taxon
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
''intermedia'' has been considered a distinct species, or alternatively an intermediate between ''U. benjamini'' and ''U. ruficrissa'', leading to these being considered
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
. At present, ''intermedia'' is considered a variant and
junior synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...
of ''ruficrissa'', resulting in two
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 being recognized:
Species
The genus contains two species.
References
Split Urosticte ruficrissa from U. benjamini (and not recognize U. "intermedia")- South American Check-list Committee.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1094420