The blue-tailed hummingbird (''Saucerottia cyanura'') 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

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

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 blue-tailed hummingbird was formerly placed in the

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 ...

''. 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 the genus ''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 blue-tailed 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''. Three subspecies are recognized, 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. cyanura'', ''S. c. guatemalae'', and ''S. c. impatiens''.

Description

The blue-tailed hummingbird is long. One male specimen weighed and females weigh about . Both sexes of all subspecies have a black bill with a reddish base to the

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 ...

. Males of the nominate subspecies have a deep metallic green crown and back, a dull purplish bronze rump, and dark metallic bluish 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 ...

. Their

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

and secondaries are chestnut and show as a patch on the closed wing. Their tail is dark metallic violet blue. Their underparts are mostly bright metallic green with dull steel blue undertail coverts. Females are similar to males but duller. Their rump is less purplish and their underparts' feathers usually have narrow whitish margins. Their belly has some dull buffy whitish mixed in and their undertail coverts are grayish.Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, and T. S. Schulenberg (2021). Blue-tailed Hummingbird (''Saucerottia cyanura''), 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.blthum1.01.1 retrieved September 6, 2022 Subspecies ''S. c. guatemalae'' is much darker than the nominate. The chestnut on the wings is darker, the tail's blue more violaceous to metallic purple, and the undertail coverts dark steel blue to blue-black. ''S. c. impatiens'' is somewhat larger than the nominate. Its head and back are darker green, the rufous or cinnamon patch on the wings is larger, and the undertail coverts are dull steel blue with rich ferruginous edges.

Distribution and habitat

The blue-tailed hummingbird subspecies ''S. c. guatemalae'' is found on the Pacific slope from southeastern

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

in Mexico to southern Guatemala. The nominate ''S. c. cyanura'' is found in southern Honduras, eastern El Salvador, and northwestern Nicaragua. ''S. c. impatiens'' is found in northwestern and central

. (The map omits this last subspecies' range.) It inhabits a variety of semi-open landscapes such as the edges and clearings of humid and dry oak and pine forest,

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 ...

, scrublands, and shade coffee plantations. In elevation it ranges between in Mexico and Guatemala and from near sea level to in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Behavior

Movement

The blue-tailed hummingbird's movements, if any, have not been documented.

Feeding

The blue-tailed hummingbird forages for nectar at all levels of its habitat. Though details of its diet are lacking, it is known to frequent ''

Inga ''Inga'' is a genus of small tropical, tough-leaved, nitrogen-fixing treesElkan, Daniel. "Slash-and-burn farming has become a major threat to the world's rainforest" ''The Guardian'' 21 April 2004 and shrubs, subfamily Mimosoideae. ''Inga''s l ...

'' trees. It is assumed to also consume insects like other hummingbirds.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the blue-tailed hummingbird's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

. Its nest and eggs have not been described.

Vocalization

The blue-tailed hummingbird's song is "a short twitter". Its calls include "a hard, raspy ''bzzzrt'' ... hard chips, and high, sharp ''siik!'', the last of which it makes in flight.

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 blue-tailed hummingbird as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. "Human activity probably has little short term effect on heBlue-tailed Hummingbird."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q730279 Saucerottia Hummingbird species of Central America Central American dry forests Birds described in 1859 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by John Gould Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN