Copper-rumped hummingbird
The copper-rumped hummingbird is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Tobago, Trinidad, Venezuela, and possibly Grenada.
Taxonomy and systematics
The copper-rumped hummingbird was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus and coined the binomial name Trochilus tobaci. Gmelin based his description on the "Tobago Humming-Bird" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The copper-rumped hummingbird was formerly placed in the genus Amazilia. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus Amazilia was polyphyletic. In the revised classification to create monophyletic genera, the copper-rumped hummingbird was moved by most taxonomic systems to the resurrected genus Saucerottia. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World retains it in Amazilia.The genus Saucerottia had been introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name is from the specific epithet saucerrottei for the steely-vented hummingbird, the type species. The epithet was coined in 1846 by Adolphe Delattre and Jules Bourcier to honor the French physician and ornithologist Antoine Constant Saucerotte. The specific epithet tobaci is from the island of Tobago, the type locality.
These seven subspecies of copper-rumped hummingbird are recognised by world-wide taxonomic systems:S. t. monticola Todd, 1913S. t. feliciae S. t. caudata S. t. aliciae S. t. erythronotos S. t. tobaci S. t. caurensis Berlepsch & Hartert, E, 1902
Description
The copper-rumped hummingbird is long. Males weigh and females. The nominate subspecies S. t. tobaci is the largest. Both sexes of all subspecies have a straight, medium length, blackish bill with a pinkish base to the mandible. Males of S. t. tobaci have bronze-green upperparts with purple-red uppertail coverts. They have dark golden-green underparts with reddish brown undertail coverts. Their tail is purplish black. Adult females are similar though their upperparts are a less intense bronze-green and they have some whitish on the chin and upper throat. Juveniles resemble females but have some grayish brown on the throat and belly.Subspecies S. t. monticola is darker than the nominate and has a steel blue to violet-blue tail. S. t. feliciaes back is more of a golden-green than the nominate's and its tail is bluish black. S. t. caudata has a dark blue tail. S. t. aliciae has some copper in its upperparts, a blue-black tail, and cinnamon-rufous undertail coverts. S. t. erythronotos has slightly darker underparts than the nominate and some dark purplish in the uppertail coverts. S. t. caurensis has a grayer rump and uppertail coverts than the nominate, a dark purplish tail, and bluish black undertail coverts.
Distribution and habitat
The subspecies of copper-rumped hummingbird are found thus:S. t. monticola, the northwestern Venezuelan states of Falcón, Lara, and YaracuyS. t. feliciae, north and central Venezuela between Carabobo and Anzoátegui and south to Táchira, Apure, and GuáricoS. t. caudata, northeastern Venezuela's states of Sucre and MonagasS. t. aliciae, Margarita Island off the coast of VenezuelaS. t. erythronotos, TrinidadS. t. tobaci, TobagoS. t. caurensis Bolívar and Amazonas states in southeastern VenezuelaSpecimens of this species labeled as from Grenada are believed to have been actually collected on Tobago, and "the occurrence of the species in the Lesser Antilles is doubtful."
The copper-rumped hummingbird inhabits a wide variety of forest types including gallery forest, cloudforest, rainforest, and secondary forest. S. t. erythronotos and S. t. tobaci are also found in savanna, plantations, and gardens. Most subspecies range in elevation from sea level to though monticola and feliciae can be found as high as and aliciae is seldom found at low elevation.