Steely-vented Hummingbird

Steel Green Amazilie ( Amasilia saucerottei )

The steel Green Amazilie ( Amasilia saucerottei ) or sometimes Stahlamazilie is a species of bird in the family of hummingbirds ( Trochilidae ). The species has a large distribution area, which covers about 250,000 square kilometers in the South American countries of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela and the Central American countries, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The stock is assessed by the IUCN as endangered not (Least Concern ).

Features

The steel Green Amazilie reaches a body length of about 8.9 centimeters. The straight bill is about 18 millimeters long. The mandible is pale pink with dark points. The male is on top of shimmering green, while the underside glistening green. The upper part of the range of the tail is brown bronze covered the lower part is steel blue to black and whitish at the end. The female is very similar, but differs by a gray to brownish tail.

Habitat

The hummingbird is found mainly in dry bushes. He likes to move to the edges of woods and uncultivated land and gardens. It is found at altitudes up to 2000 meters near Pacific slopes.

Behavior

The bird feeds primarily on nectar from flowers of low bushes and scrub. He is also remarkably pugnacious. Its cup- shaped nest, he secured the branches. Depending on the region it breeds such as in Santa Maria ( Colombia) from July to October and in the Central and Western Andes from January to September.

Subspecies

So far, four subspecies are known. The following subspecies have been identified:

  • Amasilia saucerottei braccata ( Heine, 1863)
  • Amasilia saucerottei hoffmanni ( Cabanis & Heine, 1860)
  • Amasilia saucerottei saucerottei ( Delattre & Bourcier, 1846)
  • Amasilia saucerottei warscewiczi ( Cabanis & Heine, 1860)

The subspecies Amasilia Amasilia saucerottei australis ( Meyer de Schauensee, 1951) is usually regarded as an invalid taxon.

The subspecies hoffmanni lives in the west of Nicaragua as well as in West & Central Costa Rica. The subspecies warscewiczi occurs in northern Colombia and the extreme north-west of Venezuela. To the west of Venezuela is the ssp. braccata home. There you can find them in the Andes in Mérida and Trujillo. In the northwest, north central and western Colombia can see the ssp. saucerottei watch.

Etymology and History of Research

Pierre Adolphe Delattre and Bourcier Jules described the steel Green Amazilie under the name Trochilus Saucerrottei. The type specimen came from Cali in the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, an area had collected in the Delattre during one of his trips. Only later they slammed the genus Amasilia. Often we find the epithet in the literature misspelled as saucerrottei. According to Article 32.1.5 of the International Regulations for Zoological Nomenclature the typo in the original description, however, is correct.

The word Amasilia comes from a novel by Jean -François Marmontel, who reported in Les Incas, ou La Destruction De L'empire you Pérou of an Inca heroine named Amazili.

The word " saucerottei " was awarded in honor of Antoine Constant sauce Rottenberg (1805-1884), a physician and amateur ornithologists from Luneville. The names of the subspecies ' warscewiczi "and" hoffmanni " was after their discoverers Joseph of Warscewicz (1812-1866), a Polish botanist and horticultural director at the Botanical Garden of Krakow and the German naturalist Karl Hoffmann, of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin many gave to new bellows from Costa Rica, named.

The word " braccata " derives from the Latin words " Braccae " for " pants ".

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