The Guanacaste hummingbird, also known as the Alfaro's hummingbird or Miravalles hummingbird (''Saucerottia alfaroana''), is a possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of hummingbird known only from a holotype collected in 1895 at the Miravalles Volcano 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 ...

Taxonomy

It is usually treated as a subspecies of the Indigo-capped hummingbird or a hybrid between two unknown hummingbird species, but analysis of the holotype suggests it is its own species.

Conservation

It is possibly extinct, but the

ecological stability In ecology, an ecosystem is said to possess ecological stability (or equilibrium) if it is capable of returning to its equilibrium state after a perturbation (a capacity known as Ecological resilience, resilience) or does not experience unexpecte ...

of the area where the specimen was found indicates a possible undiscovered population still existing. 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 ...

classifies it as critically endangered.

References

Controversial hummingbird taxa Amazilia Endemic birds of Costa Rica Birds described in 1896 Species known from a single specimen {{Hummingbird-stub