Celestial sylphs

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Celestial sylphs
Celestial sylph (Aglaiocercus kingii) ♂

Celestial sylph ( Aglaiocercus kingii ) ♂

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Sailor birds (Apodiformes)
Family : Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)
Genre : Long-tailed hummingbirds ( Aglaiocercus )
Type : Celestial sylphs
Scientific name
Aglaiocercus kingii
( Lesson , 1832)

The celestial sylph ( Aglaiocercus kingii ) is a species of bird in the hummingbird family (Trochilidae). The species has a large range that covers about 440,000 square kilometers in the South American countries Venezuela , Colombia , Ecuador , Peru, and Bolivia . The IUCN assesses the population as Least Concern .

features

The male celestial sylph reaches a body length of about 18 centimeters, while the female is only up to 9.7 centimeters tall. The short beak is about 13 millimeters long in both. The male is mostly iridescent green. The color changes to a cloudy green towards the rear. The hummingbird has a green crown on its head. It has a glittering blue point on its throat. The point does not exist in the subspecies caudatus and emmae . The long gradual tail can be up to 114 millimeters. In terms of color, it can vary from metal green, blue-green to purple. The color of the subspecies kingi and caudatus is even blue, similar to that of a peacock. The underside is black.

Celestial sylph ( Aglaiocercus kingii ) ♀

The female is also glittering green in the top. The whitish throat and chest are speckled with green spots. The bottom part is cinnamon colored. The dark blue-green tail is rather inconspicuous. The outer feathers of the tail are shimmery white.

Habitat

The bird can be seen relatively frequently in damp to wet forest edges, secondary forests, bushy clearings and also gardens. She likes musty underground. Usually he does not stay in the forest. The celestial sylph prefers to live at altitudes between 1400 and 3000 meters. The subspecies caudatus occurs in the east north of Santander . The subspecies kingii also lives in the east between Bucaramanga and Cundinamarca . The species emmae can be found in the central and western Andes in Cauca and the mountain slopes of Nariño .

behavior

The celestial sylph supplies itself from almost every source of food. You can see the hummingbird together with other hummingbirds collecting nectar in the canopy of blossoming trees. It usually hovers in front of the flower. Occasionally, he also clings. The bird catches its insects from the open seat. The celestial sylph builds the extensive arched nest from moss and fibers. She uses deciduous branches for stabilization. The entrance to the nest is on the side.

Subspecies

Distribution area of ​​the celestial sylph

So far, six subspecies are known:

  • Aglaiocercus kingii caudatus ( Berlepsch , 1892)
  • Aglaiocercus kingii emmae ( Berlepsch , 1892)
  • Aglaiocercus kingii kingii ( Lesson , 1832)
  • Aglaiocercus kingii margarethae ( Heine , 1863)
  • Aglaiocercus kingii mocoa ( Delattre & Bourcier , 1846)
  • Aglaiocercus kingii smaragdinus ( Gould , 1846)

The taxon Neolesbia nehrkorni ( Berlepsch , 1887) is only known from two bellows from Colombia. Today it is considered a hybrid between the celestial sylph and the purple short-billed hummingbird ( Ramphomicron microrhynchum ).

The subspecies margarethae occurs in the north central and the coasts of Venezuela. The caudatus subspecies is found in western Venezuela and northern Colombia. The subspecies emmae can be found in the central Andes of northern Colombia to the western Andes of southern Colombia and in the northwest of Ecuador . Only in the east of Colombia is the ssp. kingii spreads. Ssp. mocoa is present in the central Andes of southern Colombia via Ecuador to northern Peru. The distribution of smaragdinus extends from the east of Peru to the west of central Bolivia.

Etymology and history of research

René Primevère Lesson described the celestial sylph under the name Ornismya kingii . The description was based on a drawing of a copy from the collection of George Loddiges (1786–1846) from Hackney , which Lesson received from Charles Stokes (1783–1853). This drawing served Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (1768–1849) as a template for his blackboard for Lesson's description. Later the species was assigned to the genus Aglaiocercus . This word is made up of the Greek words "aglaia ἀγλαΐα " for "shine, splendor, beauty" and "kerkos κέρκος " for "tail". The species name is dedicated to Phillip Parker King (1791-1856), who was traveling in tropical America between 1825 and 1830. Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch dedicated "Emmae" to his wife Emma von Berlepsch, née. von Bülow, whom he married on August 8, 1891 in Bonn. "Caudatus" comes from the Latin word "cauda" for "tail". Ferdinand Heine junior honors his sister Margarethe Heine (1847–1932) with »margarethae«. » Mocoa « stands for the former capital of the Indians, which bordered the areas of the cannibalistic tribes of the Huitotos and Mesalles and was rarely visited by Europeans. Finally, »smaragdinus« is derived from »emerald green« from the Latin word »smaragdus« for emerald.

literature

  • Steven L. Hilty , William L. Brown: A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, 1986, ISBN 978-0-691-08372-8 , pp. 295-296.
  • Thomas Schulenberg , Douglas F. Stotz, Daniel F. Lane: Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-691-04915-1 , p. 238.
  • Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch: Baron von Berlepsch presents new South American bird species and explains their differences from known forms . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 40 , no. 200 , 1895, pp. 451-456 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed May 19, 2014]).
  • James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 .
  • René Primevère Lesson : Les Trochilidées ou les Colibris et Les Oiseaux-Mouches Suivis d'un index général dans lequel sont décrites et classées méthodiquement toutes les races et espèces du genere Trochilus. Ouvrage orné de planches dessinées et gravées par les meilleurs artistes . Arthus-Bertrand, Paris 1831 ( gallica.bnf.fr [accessed May 19, 2014]).
  • René Primevère Lesson: Les Trochilidées ou les Colibris et Les Oiseaux-Mouches Suivis d'un index général dans lequel sont décrites et classées méthodiquement toutes les races et espèces du genere Trochilus. Ouvrage orné de planches dessinées et gravées par les meilleurs artistes - 66 plates (Prêtre, Antoine Germaine Bévalet) . Arthus-Bertrand, Paris 1831 ( gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de [accessed on May 19, 2014]).
  • Ferdinand Heine junior: Trochilidica . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 11 , no. 63 , 1863, pp. 173-217 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed May 19, 2014]).
  • Adolphe Delattre , Jules Bourcier: Description de quinze espèce nouvelle de Trochilidèe, faisant partie de collections rapportées par M. Ad. De Lattre dont le précédentes excursions ont déjà enrichi plusieurs branches de L'histoire naturelle, et provenant de L'intérieur de Pérou, de républiques de l'Équateur, de la Nouvelle-Grenade et del'isthme de Panama . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 9 , 1846, pp. 305-312 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed May 19, 2014]).
  • John Gould: On twenty new species of Trochilidae or Humming Birds . In: Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . tape 14 , no. 164 , 1846, pp. 85-95 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed May 19, 2014]).
  • Carl Eduard Hellmayr : Hans Graf von Berlepsch † - A life sketch . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 63 , no. 4 , 1915, pp. 557-568 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed May 22, 2014]).

Web links

Commons : Celestial Sylph ( Aglaiocercus kingii )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ WILDLIFE FOCUS HUMMINGBIRD GUIDE ( Memento from January 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ IOC World Bird List Hummingbirds
  3. ↑ Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch, p. 454
  4. ^ A b Hans Hermann Carl Ludwig von Berlepsch, p. 452
  5. ↑ a b c René Primevère Lesson, p. 107, plate 38
  6. ↑ Ferdinand Heine junior, p. 213
  7. ↑ Adolphe Delattre et al. a., p. 311
  8. ^ John Gould, p. 85
  9. ↑ J. Del Hoyo, A. Elliot, J. Sargatal (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 5: Barn-Owls to Hummingbirds. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84-87334-25-3 .
  10. ↑ James A. Jobling p. 36
  11. ↑ Carl Eduard Hellmayr, p. 559
  12. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 94
  13. ↑ Ferdinand Heine junior, p. 214
  14. ↑ Adolphe Delattre et al. a., p. 312
  15. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 358