The short-tailed emerald (''Chlorostilbon poortmani'') is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...
in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
.
[HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021] It has also been called Poortman's emerald hummingbird.
[ Gould, John, ''A Monograph of the Trochilidae or Humming Birds with 360 plates'' (5 volumes, 1849–1861); 'Poortman's Emerald Hummingbird' is Plate 358 in volume 5 (1861) but the lithograph was published in 1860]
Taxonomy and systematics
Two
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
of short-tailed emerald are recognized by the South 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 m ...
, the
International Ornithological Committee
The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...
(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 2022 ...
. They are the
nominate ''C. p. poortmani'' and ''C. p. euchloris''.
[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, 2022][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] 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 ...
'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. T ...
includes as a third subspecies what the other three taxonomic systems treat as a full species, the green-tailed emerald
The green-tailed emerald (''Chlorostilbon alice'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is endemic to Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The green-tailed emerald was originally describ ...
(''C. alice'').[ In addition, subspecies ''euchloris'' has been treated as a separate species by some authors.][
The species' ]binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
was given by Jules Bourcier (1797–1873), a French naturalist and expert on hummingbirds.
Description
The male short-tailed emerald is long and females . The species weighs between . Both sexes of both subspecies have a straight black bill. Males of the nominate subspecies have an iridescent green forehead and bronzy green crown, upperparts, and uppertail coverts
A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts
The ear coverts are sm ...
. Their underparts are brilliant glittery green. Their tail is short, forked, and iridescent bronze green. Nominate females have a dull green forehead and a dull bronzy green crown, upperparts, and uppertail coverts. Their underparts are gray. Their tail, like the male's, is short and forked. Its central pair of feathers is green and the others have dull turquoise bases becoming dark blue near the end with pale gray tips. Subspecies ''C. p. euchloris'' is very similar to the nominate, but is slightly larger and has a golden tinge to the crown and underparts.[Bündgen, R., P. F. D. Boesman, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Short-tailed Emerald (''Chlorostilbon poortmani''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.shteme1.01 retrieved August 3, 2022]
The short-tailed emerald closely resembles several other members of genus ''Chlorostilbon''. A few other species of the genus have similarly short tails (e.g. the green-tailed emerald). The female short-tailed is quite similar to those of the coppery emerald (''C. russatus'') and narrow-tailed emerald
The narrow-tailed emerald (''Chlorostilbon stenurus'') is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds ...
(''C. stenurus'') but they no blue in their tails.[
]
Distribution and habitat
The nominate subspecies of short-tailed emerald is found from the Andes of western Venezuela's Mérida and Táchira states through the eastern slope of Colombia's eastern Andes between Boyacá Department
Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia".
Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the moun ...
and Meta Department. ''C. p. euchloris'' is found in the eastern Andes of Colombia, on the western slope as far south as Huila Department
Huila () is one of the departments of Colombia. It is located in the southwest of the country, and its capital is Neiva.
Demography and Ethnography
Huila is a department that has a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants, of which 679,667 (60.54% ...
and on the eastern slope in Santander Department. The species inhabits the interior and edges of humid forest, open woodland, and secondary forest
A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...
. It also occurs in human-created habitats such as coffee and banana plantations and pastures with trees, though in the last it typically stays near streams. In elevation it is usually found between but has been recorded as low as in Mérida and as high as in Táchira.[
]
Behavior
Flight
The short-tailed emerald has a weaving and floating flight unlike that of other ''Chlorostilbon'' species.[
]
Movement
The short-tailed emerald is generally sedentary, but the low and high elevations noted above are potentially evidence of vertical movements.[
]
Feeding
The short-tailed emerald uses a variety of foraging strategies to feed on nectar. It uses 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 trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually seen in species ...
at low-quality sources and "steals" nectar from richer sources in other hummingbird's territories. Males sometimes defend nectar-rich feeding territories. The species forages fairly low in the vegetation, usually between above the ground, and usually in rather open areas such as roadsides, clearings, and coffee plantations. It seeks nectar at a variety of flowering plants, shrubs, and smaller trees and tends to shun large flowering trees. In addition to nectar, it also feeds on small insects captured by hawking
Hawking may refer to:
People
* Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist
*Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name)
Film
* ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Haw ...
from a perch.[
]
Breeding
The short-tailed emerald apparently breeds in May and June on the Colombian eastern Andean slope but begins as early as February on the western slope. It makes a cup nest of soft material with leaf fragments, moss, ''Cycadaceae'' scales, and other materials on the outside and typically places it on thin branches about above the ground. The female incubates the clutch of two eggs for 14 to 16 days and fledging occurs 20 to 22 days after hatch.[
]
Vocalization
What is thought to be the short-tailed emerald's song is "a long series of high-pitched ''tseep'' notes" that is thought to be sung only in the wet season. It also makes "repeated short ''tsip'' and longer downslurred plaintive ''tsew...tsew..''" calls.[
]
In art
The English ornithologist John Gould depicts ''Poortman's emerald hummingbird'' in a lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
dated 1860, from the neighborhood of Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
, Colombia, with a Victoria water lily against the background of a lake,[ a juxtaposition which has been called "one of the most striking examples of a plant chosen for its fame and beauty rather than its appropriateness".][Lambourne, Maureen, 'John Gould, Curtis's Botanical Magazine and William Jameson' in ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'', Volume 16, Issue 1 (February 1999)]
p. 33
online at ingentaconnect.com (subscription required), accessed 8 August 2008
Status
The IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
follows HBW taxonomy and so includes the green-tailed emerald in its assessment. It deems the short-tailed emerald '' sensu lato'' to be of Least Concern, though its population size and trend are not known.[ It does frequent human-maded habitats such as gardens and plantations as long as shrubs and trees are present.][
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1259647
short-tailed emerald
Hummingbird species of South America
Birds of the Colombian Andes
Birds of the Venezuelan Andes
Birds of the Venezuelan Coastal Range
short-tailed emerald
short-tailed emerald
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot