The crimson topaz (''Topaza pella'') 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 family
Trochilidae
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 ...
. 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 ...
,
French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
,
Guyana
Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...
,
Suriname
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
, 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 ...
.
[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 August 2021. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved August 24, 2021]
Taxonomy and systematics
The crimson topaz was
formally described
A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...
by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in 1758 in the
tenth edition
Tenth may refer to:
Numbers
* 10th, the ordinal form of the number ten
* One tenth, , or 0.1, a fraction, one part of a unit divided equally into ten parts.
** the SI prefix deci-
** tithe, a one-tenth part of something
* 1/10 of any unit of me ...
of his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...
'' under the
binomial name
In 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 grammatical forms, altho ...
''Trochilus pella''.
Linnaeus based his description on the "Long-tail'd red huming-bird" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist
George Edwards in 1743 from a specimen owned by
Charles Lennox, the Duke of Richmond. The specimen had been collected in
Suriname
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
. The specific epithet is from the Latin ''pellus'' meaning "dark-colored". The crimson topaz is now 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 ...
''
Topaza'' that was introduced by
George Robert Gray
George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London f ...
in 1840 with the crimson topaz as the
type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
.
[
Three ]subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are recognised:[
* ''T. p. pella'' ]Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
(1758)
* ''T. p. smaragdulus'' Bosc
Bosc may refer to:
* Bosc pear, a cultivar of the European Pear
* Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC), an academic conference
* Gobiosoma bosc, a fish of family Gobiidae
People
* Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1759–1828), French bota ...
(1792)
* ''T. p. microrhyncha'' Butler, AL
Butler is a town in and the county seat of Choctaw County, Alabama, Choctaw County, Alabama, United States. The population was 1,894 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
History
When Choctaw County was formed in 1847, Butler was crea ...
(1926)
The crimson topaz has 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 fiery topaz (''T. pyra'') but currently (2021) the two are considered to form 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 ...
.[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 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021][Schuchmann, K.L., G. M. Kirwan, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Crimson Topaz (''Topaza pella''), 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.critop1.01 retrieved November 12, 2021]
Description
The male crimson topaz is long including the bill and tail, and weighs . Females are long and weigh . It may be the second largest species of hummingbird after the giant hummingbird
The giant hummingbirds are Hummingbird, hummingbirds of the genus ''Patagona''. The genus includes two species, the northern giant hummingbird, sedentary giant hummingbird and the southern giant hummingbird, migratory giant hummingbird, which are ...
, rivaled only by its cousin, the fiery topaz.
Male and female crimson topaz have different plumages. Both have a straight to slightly decurved bill. The male's head, face, and the sides of the neck are velvety black. Its back is iridescent crimson to gold on 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 ...
. The central tail feathers are bronzy green and the outer ones chestnut; two of the latter are elongated and crossed. The throat is golden green surrounded by a black band and the underparts bright red. The wings are brown. The female's head and back are dark green and its underparts a lighter green with golden green inclusions; the throat is green with crimson inclusions. The central tail feathers are bronzy, the middle pair violet, and the outer pair chestnut, and none are elongated like the male's.[
]
Distribution and habitat
The subspecies of crimson topaz are distributed thus:[
* ''T. p. pella'', eastern Venezuela through Guyana and Suriname into northern and western Brazil as far south as ]Rondônia
Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west,
Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...
* ''T. p. smaragdulus'', French Guiana and northeastern Brazil to between the Tapajós
The Tapajós ( ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. Prior to a drastic increase in illegal gold mi ...
and Tocantins River
The Tocantins River ( , Parkatêjê dialect, Parkatêjê: ''Pyti'' ɨˈti is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (''Tukã'' for "toucan" and ''Ti'' for "beak"). It ...
s
* ''T. p. microrhyncha'', Brazil's northeastern Pará
Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...
state east of the Tocantins and Marajó
Marajó () is a large coastal island in the state of Pará, Brazil. It is the main and largest of the islands in the Marajó Archipelago. Marajó Island is separated from the mainland by Marajó Bay, Pará River, smaller rivers (especially M ...
Island at the mouth of the Amazon
The species mainly inhabits inland rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
in lowlands and foothills at elevations up to . It frequents granite outcrops and also gallery forest
A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...
along small waterways.[
]
Behavior
Movement
The crimson topaz is mostly sedentary during the breeding season but at other times appears to roam elsewhere seeking flowering plants.[
]
Feeding
Male crimson topaz defend feeding territories. The species feeds on nectar of flowering trees, mainly in the canopy of the forest, and also the flowers of vines and 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 ...
s. It has been observed feeding in flowering shrubs near the ground in Suriname. It also captures small insects in the air, both above the canopy and low along streams.[
]
Breeding
The crimson topaz's breeding season varies across its range; it has two seasons in the Guianas
The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...
. Males make display flights that show the white feathers on their legs. The female builds a cup nest of ''Ceiba'' seed fibers and spider web, often on vertical branches or in vines, and often over water. The clutch size is two eggs.[
]
Vocalization
The crimson topaz's song is an "irregular series of chattering 'chip' notes given almost continually (other than breaks to feed) throughout the day." It often sings from a perch in the canopy and may make short flights out and back to the same perch between songs.[
]
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 crimson topaz as being of Least Concern, though its population has not been enumerated and is believed to be decreasing.[ It is considered rare to locally common, but may be undercounted because of its treetop habits. It occurs in several protected areas and continues to be discovered in "gaps" in its range.][
]
References
Additional reading
* Arthur Lennox Butler: Mr. A. L. Butler exhibited some examples of Topaza pella which he had recently received from the neighbourhood of Pará. In: Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Bd. 46, 1926, S. 56–57 (online, retrieved 19 June 2014).
* Da-Shih Hu, Leo Joseph, David Agro:
Distribution, Variation, and Taxonomy of Topaza Hummingbirds (Aves: Trochilidae).
In: Ornitologia Neotropical. Bd. 11, Nr. 2, 2000, S. 123–142
* Harry Church Oberholser: Catalogue of a collection of hummingbirds from Ecuador and Colombia. In: Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Bd. 24, 1902, S. 309–342
* Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc: Description d'une nouvelle espèce de Grimpereau. In: Journal d'histoire naturelle. Bd. 1, 1792, S. 385–386, Tafel 20, Abbildung 5
External links
The Internet Bird Collection Crimson topaz video at IBC
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1074470
crimson topaz
Birds of the Guiana Shield
Birds of the Brazilian Amazon
Crimson topaz
crimson topaz
crimson topaz
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot