The steely-vented hummingbird (''Saucerottia saucerottei'') is a species 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 ar ...

in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Colombia 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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The steely-vented hummingbird was formerly placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

Amazilia ''Amazilia'' is a hummingbird genus in the subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical Central and South America. Taxonomy The genus ''Amazilia'' was introduced in 1843 by the French naturalist René Lesson. Lesson had used ''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 the genus ''Amazilia'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

. In the revised classification to create

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

genera, the steely-vented hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to the resurrected genus '' Saucerottia''.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 ...

'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''. Most taxonomic systems assign the steely-vented hummingbird three subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''S. s. saucerottei'', ''S. s. warscewiczi'', and ''S. s. braccata''. HBW includes as a fourth subspecies what the others treat as the separate blue-vented hummingbird (''S. hoffmanni''). In addition, in the late 1800s ''S. s. warscewiczi'' was treated as a separate species with ''S. s. braccata'' as a subspecies.Weller, A.A., P. F. D. Boesman, and H. F. Greeney (2021). Steely-vented Hummingbird (''Saucerottia saucerottei''), version 1.1. 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.stvhum2.01.1 retrieved September 7, 2022

Description

The steely-vented hummingbird is long and weighs about . Both sexes of all subspecies have a black bill with a pinkish or reddish base to the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bon ...

. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have golden-green upperparts with blue-black 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 s ...

. Their tail is also blue-black. Their underparts are dark glittering golden-green with greenish to steel blue undertail coverts. Adult females have some white on their throat feathers and grayish-brown undertail coverts. Immature birds somewhat resemble the female but are overall duller and have a partly dark gray throat, a grayish brown belly, and brownish edges to the back and rump feathers. The other two subspecies differ little from the nominate. ''S. s. warscewiczi'' is somewhat smaller and has a purplish to bluish tinge to the uppertail coverts. ''S. s. braccata'' has purplish tips on the rump feathers and violet-blue to bluish uppertail coverts.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''S. s. warscewiczi'' of the steely-vented hummingbird is the northernmost. It is found in northern Colombia from

Sucre Department Sucre () is a department in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The department ranks 27th by area, and it has a population of 904,863, ranking 20th of all the 32 departments of Colombia. Sucre is bordered by the Caribbean on the northwest; by Bo ...

east into western Zulia state in extreme northwestern Venezuela. The nominate ''S. s. saucerottei'' is found in western and north-central Colombia on the western slope of the Western Andes and in the

Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangue in Bolivar Department, an ...

valley. ''S. s. braccata'' is found in the Andes of western Venezuela in the states of Trujillo and Mérida. (Note that the range map includes that of the Central American blue-vented hummingbird.) The steely-vented hummingbird inhabits semi-open to open landscapes such as scrublands, savanna, the edges of mature forest,

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. ...

, plantations, and gardens. Most of them tend to be somewhat arid. In most of its range it is found between sea level and . ''S. s. braccata'' can usually be found up to and rarely as high as .

Behavior

Movement

The steely-vented hummingbird is essentially sedentary but might make local movements in response to availability of flowering plants.

Feeding

Little is known about the steely-vented hummingbird's feeding practices or diet. It is known to forage for nectar at low bushes and trees and is thought to be somewhat territorial.

Breeding

The steely-vented hummingbird apparently breeds at any time of the year in Colombia. Essentailly nothing else is known about the species' 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 ...

. One nest was described as a simple cup "saddled" on a limb of an isolated tree about above the ground. The eggs, incubation period, and time to fledging have not been described.

Vocalization

The steely-vented hummingbird's song has not been described in words. Its calls have been described as "a high, sharp ''tsit'' or dry ''chit,'' sometimes uttered in sputtering series."

Status

The IUCN follows HBW taxonomy and so has included the blue-vented hummingbird in its assessment of the steely-vented. It has assessed the combined species as being of Least Concern. It has a population of at least 500,000 mature individuals that is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. The steely-vented hummingbird ''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...

'' is considered fairly common to common in most of its range and numerous in some habitats, and it occurs in at least one protected area.