Sabrewing is the common name given to

hummingbirds 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 ...

classified 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 ...

''Campylopterus''. The group includes ten

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), ...

. They are

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

birds that inhabit mountainous forests, generally near streams. Sabrewings are on average 12 to 15 cm long. Although small birds, they are relatively large compared to other hummingbirds. The bill is black, strong and slightly curved. The two outer primary remiges (flight feathers) are thick and curved, giving the wings a generally curved appearance. This characteristic is the origin of the common name "sabrewing" and the generic name ''Campylopterus'', from the Greek ''kampulos'' (curved) + ''pteros'' (wing). The plumage of sabrewings is based on brownish-green, cinnamon, gray and combinations. Some species have additional shades of violet, particularly on the head, tail and/or throat. Sabrewings feed on

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

, like most hummingbirds, with a preference for flowers of the genus ''

Heliconia ''Heliconia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the western Pacific and Maluku (province), ...

''.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Campylopterus'' was erected by the English naturalist

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

in 1827. 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 ...

was subsequently designated as the grey-breasted sabrewing. The generic name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''kampulos'' meaning "curved" or "bent" and ''-pteros'' meaning "-winged". The

sombre hummingbird The sombre hummingbird (''Eupetomena cirrochloris'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is endemic to Brazil.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and B ...

and

swallow-tailed hummingbird The swallow-tailed hummingbird (''Eupetomena macroura'') is a species in the hummingbird family (biology), family (Trochilidae), found mainly in east-central South America. Most authorities place it in the genus ''Eupetomena'', although some plac ...

, formerly classified in ''Campylopterus'', have been reclassified by most authorities into their own

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 ...

genera ''Aphantochroa'' and ''Eupetomena''. The genus contains 10 species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q535829 * Taxa named by William Swainson