The streamertails are
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 ...
s in the
genus ''Trochilus'', that are
endemic to
Jamaica. It is the
type genus of the
family Trochilidae. Today most authorities consider the two
taxa in this genus as separate species, but some (e.g.
AOU) continue to treat them as
conspecific, in which case ''scitulus'' is a
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 ''T. polytmus''. A wide range of
common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...
s apply to this combined species, including green-and-black streamertail, Jamaican streamertail or simply streamertail. The name ''streamertail'' is a reference to the greatly elongated
rectrices of the males.
Taxonomy and species list
The genus ''Trochilus'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus in the
tenth edition of his ''
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...
''.
The genus name is from the
Ancient Greek τροχιλος/''trokhilos'', a small unidentified bird mentioned by
Aristotle. Later authors assumed the word referred to a wren. The
type species was subsequently designated as the red-billed streamertail.
In his ''Systema Naturae'' Linnaeus included 18 species of hummingbird all of which he placed in ''Trochilus''. Today, 12 of these species are still recognised, but only the red-billed streamertail is retained in its original genus.
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References
* Schuchmann, K. L. (1999). Genus Trochilus. Pp. 572 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, K. eds. (1999). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World.''. Vol. 5. Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the West Indies
Endemic fauna of Jamaica
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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