The Cozumel emerald (''Cynanthus forficatus'') 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

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 the Mexican island of

Cozumel Cozumel (; ) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucatán Channel. The ...

off the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Cozumel emerald's taxonomic history is complicated. It was originally described as ''Chlorostilbon forficatus'', then as a subspecies of golden-crowned emerald (now ''Cynanthus auriceps'') which itself has been treated as a subspecies of Canivet's emerald (now ''Cynanthus canivetii''). Other more recent authors include it and many other taxa as subspecies of the blue-tailed emerald (''Chlorostilbon mellisugus'').Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, and T. S. Schulenberg (2021). Cozumel Emerald (''Cynanthus forficatus''), 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.cozeme1.01.1 retrieved July 30, 2022 The North American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

, the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

(IOC), and 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 ...

assign it the binomial ''Cynanthus forficatus''. However, as of 2020

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 ...

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. ...

(HBW) retains it in genus ''Chlorostilbon''.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

Description

Male Cozumel emeralds are long and females . Males and females both weigh about . Males have a black bill with a red tip. Its crown is bright golden to golden green and the rest of the upperparts are a slightly duller golden green. Its underparts are brilliant metallic golden green with white tibial tufts. The tail is long and deeply forked, blue-black or black with a blue gloss, and the central two or three pairs of feathers have dark brownish gray tips. The female's

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 ...

is black and 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 ...

red with a black tip. Its upperparts are bright metallic green to bronze green. It has a white stripe behind the eye and blackish cheeks. Its underparts are light gray. Its tail is not as long or deeply forked as the male's. The central pair of feathers are metallic green to blue green and the next two pairs are the same color with a blue-black or black band near the end and white tips. The outermost two pairs have white outer webs at their base, a wide black band near the end, and white tips.

Distribution and habitat

The Cozumel emerald is found essentially only on Cozumel Island of the coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. There is a single specimen from

Isla Mujeres Isla Mujeres (, Spanish for "Women Island", formally “''Isla de Mujeres''”) is an island where the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea meet, about off the Yucatán Peninsula coast in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is approximately ...

about north of Cozumel, and the species is thought to occasionally visit there. Authors have described its habitat as "scrub and low deciduous insular forest" and "brushy woodland and scrub, second growth".

Behavior

Movement

The Cozumel emerald is a year-round resident of the island.

Feeding

The Cozumel emerald's feeding strategy and diet have not been detailed. They are assumed to be similar to those of Canivet's emerald, which forages 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 ...

, visiting a circuit of a variety of flowering plants, and also feeds on 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

The Cozumel emerald's breeding season, nest, and other details of 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 ...

have not been described.

Vocalization

The Cozumel emerald's vocalizations are described as similar to those of it close relatives, "dry, rattling and chattering calls".

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 Cozumel emerald as being of Least Concern. It has an estimated population between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals that is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is described as fairly common to common and " man activity probably has little short term effect on heCozumel Emerald, which occupies edge and disturbed habitats."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266791 Cozumel emerald Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Endemic fauna of Cozumel Endemic birds of Southern Mexico Cozumel emerald Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Robert Ridgway Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN