Glittering-bellied emerald
The glittering-bellied emerald is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Taxonomy and systematics
The glittering-bellied emerald was widely called by the scientific name Chlorostilbon aureoventris, but in 2006 José Pacheco and Bret Whitney showed that lucidus is the correct specific epithet due to the principle of priority.The International Ornithological Committee assigns three subspecies to the glittering-bellied emerald: the nominate C. l. lucidus, C. l. pucherani, and C. l. beflepschi. The Clements taxonomy and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World add C. l. igneous, whose population the IOC includes in the nominate. Some ornithologists believe that pucherani is "approaching the species threshold".
The authorities and distributions for the three subspecies are:C. l. pucherani – east BrazilC. l. lucidus – Bolivia, Paraguay, central west Brazil and northwest ArgentinaC. l. berlepschi Pinto, 1938 – south Brazil, Uruguay and northeast Argentina
The subspecies C. l. pucherani is the type species of the genus Chlorostilbon.
Description
The male glittering-bellied emerald is long and weighs. Females are long and weigh. Both sexes have a short straight bill. The male's is red with a black tip; the female's is black on its outer half and red on the inner.Males of the nominate subspecies have a dull bronzy green forehead and crown, slightly golden green upperparts, grass green uppertail coverts, and a slightly forked dark steely blue tail. It has a blue-green throat and upper breast and a bronze to bronzy green belly that is more iridescent than the upperparts. The nominate female's forehead, crown, and upperparts are slightly golden green and its uppertail coverts grass green. The innermost pair of tail feathers have green inner and blue outer halves. The other four pairs are steel blue with gray tips in a V shape. It has a grayish white streak behind the eye and a whitish throat that darkens to pale brownish gray on the breast and belly.
Subspecies C. l. beflepschi has pure green rather than golden green upperparts. C. l. pucherani has the same plumage as the nominate but is slightly smaller. When considered separately, C. l. igneous has many glittering orange-gold speckles on its belly.
The song is "a high-pitched, cricket-like trill...repeated at intervals." Its principal call, given when feeding or hovering, is "a short dry, scratchy rattle, 'trrrr' or 'krrr'." It also makes "a fast descending series of 'tsee-tsee-tsee-tsu-tsew-tsew-tsew' notes" during agonistic encounters.
Distribution and habitat
Subspecies C. l. pucherani of glittering-bellied emerald is found in eastern Brazil from Maranhão and Ceará all the way south to Paraná. The nominate C. l. lucidus is found in eastern Bolivia, Parguay, and southwestern Brazil including Mato Grosso. C. l. igneous, when treated separately from the nominate, is found in western and northern Argentina. C. l. beflepschi is found from Rio Grande do Sul in southeastern Brazil through Uruguay into northeastern Argentina to Buenos Aires Province. The species has also been recorded as a vagrant in Chile and Peru.The glittering-bellied emerald inhabits a variety of semi-arid to somewhat humid, open to semi-open landscapes. It occurs in scrublands, savanna, grasslands, the edges of forest, and in parks and gardens. In elevation it ranges from sea level to but is most common between. It is sedentary, but vagrancy has been documented.