The buff-breasted sabrewing (''Campylopterus duidae''), or sometimes Duida sabrewing, 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

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

.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

Some authors have placed the buff-breasted sabrewing by itself in genus ''Loxopterus''. It has also been treated as

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 organism ...

with the rufous-breasted sabrewing (''C. hyperythrus''), as forming a

superspecies In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

with it, or as the two being

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

. Of the major worldwide taxonomic systems, none have adopted the first three treatments and only 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 ...

has adopted the last.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022Sánchez Osés, C. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Buff-breasted Sabrewing (''Campylopterus duidae''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bubsab1.01 retrieved August 24, 2022Clements, 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 The buff-breasted sabrewing 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 ...

''C. d. duidae'' and ''C. d. guaiquinimae''.

Description

The buff-breasted sabrewing is about long and weighs . Males and females have essentially the same plumage. Both have a straight black bill. Their upperparts are shining bronze-green that is somewhat greener on the head. Their underparts are drab grayish with a tawny tint on the sides. Their central tail feathers are bronze and the outer ones have dull bronze bases and orangy red ends. Subspecies ''C. d. guaiquinimae'' has a slightly different green to the upperparts compared to the nominate, and a darker tail.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of buff-breasted sabrewing is found on the

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the ...

s (isolated table mountains) of southern Venezuela and adjacent northern Brazil. Subspecies ''C. d. guaiquinimae'' is found only on Cerro Guaiquinima in southern Venezuela. The species inhabits the foothills and lower elevation evergreen

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

and the higher elevation scrublands on the tepuis. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The buff-breasted sabrewing is a year-round resident in its habitat.

Feeding

The buff-breasted sabrewing forages from the understory to the mid-strata for nectar and small

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 ...

Breeding

Nests of buff-breasted sabrewings have been noted between about of the ground but no other information is known about its 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 ...

Vocalization

The buff-breasted sabrewing's song has not been described in words. Its calls include "somewhat buzzy chipping notes 'chzzi' nda longer chattering series 'chi-zizi' or 'chizizizizizizi'."

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 buff-breasted sabrewing as being of Least Concern, though it has a very limited range and its population size is unknown and believed to be decreasing. It is, however, considered common in that small range.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q40639 Campylopterus Birds described in 1929 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Birds of the Tepuis