The azure-crowned hummingbird (''Saucerottia cyanocephala'') is a species of

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The azure-crowned hummingbird was originally described as ''Ornismya cyanocephalus'' and later moved into

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Amazilia ''Amazilia'' is a hummingbird genus in the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical Central America, Central and South America. Taxonomy The genus ''Amazilia'' was introduced in 1843 by the French naturalist René Lesson. Lesson had us ...

''.Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, T. Johnson, and T. S. Schulenberg (2021). Azure-crowned Hummingbird (''Saucerottia cyanocephala''), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.azchum1.01.1 retrieved September 5, 2022 A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 found that ''Amazilia'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. In the revised classification to create

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genera, the azure-crowned hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to the resurrected genus ''

Saucerottia ''Saucerottia'' is a genus of birds in the family (biology), family Trochilidae, or hummingbirds. Species The species now placed in this genus were formerly placed in ''Amazilia''. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the ...

''.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 However,

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 i ...

's ''

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. ...

'' retains it in ''Amazilia''. The azure-crowned hummingbird has two subspecies, 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 th ...

''S. c. cyanocephala'' (Lesson, 1829) and ''S. c. chlorostephana'' (Howell, 1965).

Description

The azure-crowned hummingbird is long. Males weigh an average of about and females average about . The bills of both sexes of both subspecies have a black

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

and a dull pink

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

with a black outer third. Within a subspecies the sexes are almost alike. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a bright metallic blue crown and females a duller blue to greenish blue crown. Both sexes have metallic bronze nape and back. They have greenish bronze to bronze green rump, uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

, and tail. Their face is mostly bluish green. Their underparts from chin to vent are white with metallic bronze green sides to the breast and duller bronze green flanks. Immatures are similar to the adults but duller, and with grayish buff tips to the uppertail coverts, whitish tips on the outer tail feathers, and a buff wash to the underparts. Subspecies ''S. c. chlorostephana'' is somewhat smaller than the nominate. Its plumage is essentially the same as that of the nominate but with a glittering green instead of metallic blue crown.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of azure-crowned hummingbird is found from the Mexican state of

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

south through Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador into north central Nicaragua. It inhabits the edges of humid evergreen forest, oak and pine-oak forest, scrublands, and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

. In elevation it ranges between . Subspecies ''S. c. chlorostephana''s range is disjunct, on the

Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast, also known as Mosquitia, is a historical and Cultural area, geo-cultural region along the western shore of the Caribbean Sea in Central America, traditionally described as extending from Cabo Camarón, Cape Camarón to the C ...

of eastern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua. This subspecies primarily inhabits pine savanna at low elevation.

Behavior

Movement

The azure-crowned hummingbird is mostly sedentary but might make some local seasonal movements.

Feeding

The azure-crowned hummingbird forages for nectar from the understory to the forest canopy, but details of its diet are lacking. It forages both 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 Animal trapping, trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually ...

and defending feeding territories. In the pine savanna it has been noted hovering at clusters of needles and bark crevices, but it is not known if it was hunting

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s or visiting the flowers of

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

Breeding

The azure-crowned hummingbird's breeding season varies geographically but overall appears to span at least from February to July. It makes a cup nest that apparently varies in materials depending on what is locally available. It is usually placed in a branch fork or "saddled" over a branch, but in urban areas some have been noted on utility wires.

Vocalization

One vocalization of the azure-crowned hummingbird is "a low, fairly hard, buzzy ''dzzzrt''" that is given in flight and perched; when perched it might be "repeated steadily". It also makes a "fairly mellow, strong chipping

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

at times run into a trill or rattle." The vocalizations of isolated subspecies ''S. c. chlorostephana'' might be different but have not been separately described.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the azure-crowned hummingbird as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an estimated population of at least 500,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. No immeditate threats have been identified. "Human activity probably has little short term effect on Azure-crowned Hummingbird".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q516108 azure-crowned hummingbird Hummingbird species of Middle America Birds of Belize azure-crowned hummingbird Taxa named by René Lesson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN