The sapphire-bellied hummingbird (''Chrysuronia lilliae'') is an

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

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 ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The sapphire-bellied hummingbird was formerly placed in the genera ''Lepidopyga'' and ''Amazilia''. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2014 found that both genera were

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. In the revised classification to create

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genera, the sapphire-bellied hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to '' Chrysuronia''.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 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022Clements, 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 However,

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 ...

's ''

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 ''Amazilia''. At times the species has been treated as a subspecies of the sapphire-throated hummingbird (''C. coeruleogularis''). The sapphire-bellied hummingbird 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 sapphire-bellied hummingbird is long. Males weigh about . Males' bills have 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 black-tipped pinkish

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 ...

. They have a shining green crown, back, and rump and their tail is forked and blue-black. They have a glittering purple

gorget A gorget ( ; ) was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the English medieval clothing, medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon (headgear), chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather Collar (c ...

and the rest of their underparts are glittering blue. The female's weight has not been documented nor its plumage described, though the latter is thought to be similar to the male's but grayer on the underparts.Luther, D. (2021). Sapphire-bellied Hummingbird (''Chrysuronia lilliae''), 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.sabhum1.01.1 retrieved September 12, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The sapphire-bellied hummingbird is found only in the mangroves of

Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta The Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta ( Spanish for Large Marsh of Saint Martha) is the largest of the swampy marshes located in Colombia between the Magdalena River and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It has an area of and belongs to the outer d ...

, a coastal wetland in northern Colombia, and in immediately adjoining arid scrublands.

Behavior

Movement

The sapphire-bellied hummingbird's movements, if any, have not been documented, though it might make local seasonal movements.

Feeding

The sapphire-bellied hummingbird's preferred nectar source is the flowers of

tea mangrove ''Pelliciera rhizophorae'', known as the tea mangrove, is a less-common species of mangroves found along the Pacific coast from the Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica to the Esmeraldas River in Ecuador, as well as within stands located in Nicaragua, Pa ...

(''Pelliciera rhizophorae''), though it has been observed feeding at the flowering legume ''

Erythrina fusca ''Erythrina fusca'' is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is known by many common names, including purple coraltree, gallito, bois immortelle, bucayo, and the more ambiguous "bucare" and "coral bean". ''E. fusca'' h ...

'' in the nearby arid scrub. In addition to nectar, it feeds on insects.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the sapphire-bellied hummingbird's 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

Xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of bird calls and sounds of orthoptera and bats. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound recordings from more th ...

and Cornell University's

Macaulay Library The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal media. It includes more than 71 million photographs, 2.6 million audio recordings, and over three hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an ev ...

have only a few recordings of the sapphire-bellied hummingbird's vocalizations. They are described as "a series of short chatters".

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 ...

originally assessed the sapphire-bellied hummingbird as Critically Endangered but in 2021 downlisted it to Endangered. It has a very small area of suitable habitat which is undergoing continuing destruction. Its population is estimated at between 285 and 440 mature individuals and believed to be decreasing. Though it occurs in two protected areas, there are very few records at one of them, Vía Parque Isla de Salamanca.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q882410

sapphire-bellied hummingbird The sapphire-bellied hummingbird (''Chrysuronia lilliae'') is an Endangered species (IUCN status), Endangered species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is endemic to Colombia. Taxonomy and systemat ...

Endemic birds of Colombia Endangered biota of South America

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN