The Chiribiquete emerald (''Chlorostilbon olivaresi'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to southern

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The Chiribiquete emerald was first described in 1996. Its

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''olivaresi'' honors Fr. Antonio Olivares to recognize his contributions to Colombian ornithology and his persisting effort in building a bird collection for the Instituto de Ciencias Natural of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It 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 "unisp ...

Description

The Chiribiquete emerald is long. Males weigh about and females about . The male's bill has 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 red

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 tip. The male's upperparts are metallic green, the 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 ...

bluish green, and the tail dark steel blue with a shallow fork. The sides of its head and neck reflect golden green. Its throat and upper breast are glittering blue-green and the rest of the underparts bright metallic green. The female's bill is black with a red tinge at the base of the mandible. The female is metallic bronze breen above and pale gray below. It has a dusky face and a white stripe behind the eye. Most of its tail is bluish green; the outer feathers have gray bases, a dark blue band near the end, and white tips.Stiles, F.G. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Chiribiquete Emerald (''Chlorostilbon olivaresi''), 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.chieme1.01 retrieved August 1, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The Chiribiquete emerald is restricted to the

Serranía de Chiribiquete The Serranía de Chiribiquete or Chiribiquete Mountains are a group of isolated table mountains in the Amazon Region of Colombia. The mountains are part of the western edge of the Guiana Shield. The area is protected as a national park. This are ...

, a range of flat-topped mountains straddling south central Colombia's Guaviare and Caquetá departments. There it primarily inhabits the open scrub and savanna of the range's middle and upper elevations. It also occurs in the forest at somewhat lower elevations but shuns the lowlands that surround the mesas. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The Chiribiquete emerald is believed to be sedentary.

Feeding

The most important source of nectar for the Chiribiquete emerald is the low shrub ''Decagonocarpus cornutus''. It takes nectar from the flowers of other shrubs and trees as well. It does not appear to defend feeding territories. It captures small insects by sallies through gaps in the vegetation and also gleans them from flowers and foliage.

Breeding

The Chiribiquete emerald probably breeds during the dry season of December to May. Its nest has not been described and nothing else 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 Chiribiquete emerald's song has not been described. When foraging it gives "a sharp, dry, scratchy 'cht'" call.

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 Chiribiquete emerald as being of Least Concern, though it occupies a limited range and its population size and trend are unknown. Most of its habitat is within Chiribiquete National Park and the mountaintops have little human activity, so "there would appear to be no imminent threat to the species."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q259914 Chiribiquete emerald Birds of the Colombian Amazon Endemic birds of Colombia Chiribiquete emerald Taxonomy articles created by Polbot