Birds of Colombia - Chrysuronia


White-chested Emerald (Chrysuronia brevirostris chionopectus) Trinidad and Tobago Note gold back and tail and straight black bill.
Photograph by Dominic Sherony Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.


White-chested Emerald (Chrysuronia brevirostris orienticola) French Guiana
Photograph by Michel GIRAUD-AUDINE © All Rights Reserved.

Not a 'chlorostilbon' emerald hummingbird, which are smaller and greener, but an 'amazilia', a large genus of medium-sized 'ordinary' hummingbirds. The White-chested Emerald has a black bill, and has a gold rump and tail (compared to Plain-bellied Emerald). Male and female similar.


Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (Chrysuronia coeruleogularis coelina) Male Ciudad Neilly, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Sapphire-throated Hummingbird (Chrysuronia coeruleogularis) Female Panama
Photograph by Peter Hawrylyshyn © All Rights Reserved.


Shining-green Hummingbird (Chrysuronia goudoti goudoti) Male ProAves Blue-billed Curassow Reserve, Puerto Pinzon, Boyaca, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Shining-green Hummingbird (Chrysuronia goudoti goudoti) Female Huila, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Note red lower mandible and vent with green scales with white borders. The male Shining-green Hummingbird is similar to the Steely-vented Hummingbird, and to the Emeralds, especially the Red-billed Emerald. Emeralds have a solid green vent, are smaller, and have a distinctive green color, and a more passive behaviour. The Shining-green may have a green, bronze (subspecies luminosa) or blue (goudoti) central tail feather. The Shining-green may have more of a bluish tinge in the chest than similar species. Although both the Steely-vented Hummingbird and the Shining-green Hummingbird are shiny from the right angle, the Shining-green seems overall shinier from all angles.

The female Shining-green has a white belly and patchy chest, and for some reason is rarely seen.
Luminosa subspecies has bronzy central tail feathers.
All similar species have forked tails.
Blue tinge to chest feathers is part of species description.


Blue-headed Sapphire (Chrysuronia grayi) Male Finca Alejandria, Cali, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Found in the dry areas below the cloud forest specially near cacti, but may pop into the cloud forest to visit a feeder. Female very ordinary with some red on bill and no blue head.


Humboldt's Sapphire (Chrysuronia humboldtii) Male Bahia Solano, Choco, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Rare and local along Pacific coast. Seen at mangrove flowers when they are in bloom, and otherwise in fields and forest edges.
Additional photo.


Sapphire-bellied Hummingbird (Chrysuronia lilliae) Endangered ENDEMIC Salamanca National Park, Colombia Note blue belly compared to green on the more widespread Sapphire-throated Hummingbird.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Now believed by many to be a color mutation of the Sapphire-throated Hummingbird, and not a true species.


Golden-tailed Sapphire (Chrysuronia oenone oenone) Male Wildsumaco Lodge, Sumaco, Ecuador Golden-tailed Sapphires northward of north Peru have a blue head.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Golden-tailed Sapphire (Chrysuronia oenone oenone) Female Vereda Verdeyaco, Putumayo, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Versicolored Emerald (Chrysuronia versicolor) Jardin de los Picaflores, Puerto Iguazu, Argentina
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Versicolored Emerald (Chrysuronia versicolor millerii) Mitu, Vaupes, Colombia A whiter individual from the northwest part of range.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.