The white-chinned sapphire (''Chlorestes cyanus'') is a 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 family

Trochilidae 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 ...

. It is found in northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

subtropical or tropical dry shrubland Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...

, and heavily degraded former forest. This species was formerly placed in the genus ''

Hylocharis ''Hylocharis'' is a genus of hummingbirds, in the family Trochilidae. It contains two species that are both found in South America. Taxonomy The genus ''Hylocharis'' was introduced in 1831 by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie. The type speci ...

''. 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 ''Hylocharis'' was

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 white-chinned sapphire was moved to ''

Chlorestes ''Chlorestes'' is a genus of hummingbirds. Species The genus contains five species: This genus formerly included only the blue-chinned sapphire. Additional species were moved to this genus based on a molecular phylogenetic study of the hummi ...

''.

Description

The male is green, with a blue head and dark-tipped red beak; the female is brown and white with a black beak. Its mandible may change color as it ages.

References

white-chinned sapphire Birds of Venezuela Birds of the Guiana Shield Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of the Atlantic Forest Hummingbird species of South America white-chinned sapphire Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot Birds of Brazil Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{hummingbird-stub