Chlorostilbon

Chlorostilbon is a genus of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae, known as emeralds (as are some hummingbirds in the genera Amazilia and Elvira). A single species, the blue-chinned sapphire is variously placed in the monotypic genus Chlorestes or in Chlorostilbon. The taxonomy of the C. mellisugus superspecies is highly complex and, depending on view, includes 1-8 species. All species in this genus have straight black or black-and-red bills. The males are overall iridescent green, golden-green or bluish-green, and in some species the tail and/or throat is blue.^[2] The females have whitish-grey underparts, tail-corners and post-ocular streak.

Chlorostilbon
Blue-tailed emerald
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Trochilidae
Tribe:	Trochilini
Genus:	Chlorostilbon Gould, 1853
Type species
Chlorostilbon prasinus[1] = Trochilus pucherani Gould, 1853
Species
See text

The genus Chlorostilbon was introduced in 1853 by the English ornithologist John Gould to accommodate a single species to which Gould gave the binomial name Chlorostilbon prasinus.^[3] This taxon is now considered as a subspecies of the glittering-bellied emerald Chlorostilbon lucidus pucherani.^[4][5][6]

Species

The genus contains ten species:^[6]

Genus Chlorostilbon – Gould, 1853 – ten species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Garden emerald	Chlorostilbon assimilis Lawrence, 1861	Costa Rica and Panama	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Western emerald Male Female	Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus Gould, 1860	Colombia and Ecuador.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Red-billed emerald Male Female	Chlorostilbon gibsoni (Fraser, 1840) Three subspecies C. g. gibsoni C. g. chrysogaster C. g. nitens	Colombia and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Blue-tailed emerald	Chlorostilbon mellisugus (Linnaeus, 1758) Seven subspecies C. m. caribaeus Lawrence, 1871 C. m. duidae Zimmer, JT & Phelps, 1952 C. m. subfurcatus Berlepsch, 1887 C. m. mellisugus (Linnaeus, 1758) C. m. phoeopygus (Tschudi, 1844 C. m. napensis Gould, 1861 C. m. peruanus Gould, 1861	Colombia east to the Guianas and Trinidad, and south to northern Bolivia and central Brazil	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Chiribiquete emerald	Chlorostilbon olivaresi Stiles, 1996	Colombia	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Glittering-bellied emerald Male Female	Chlorostilbon lucidus (Shaw, 1812) Three subspecies C. l. pucherani (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1848) C. l. lucidus (Shaw, 1812) C. l. berlepschi Pinto, 1938	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Coppery emerald	Chlorostilbon russatus (Salvin & Godman, 1881)	Colombia and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Narrow-tailed emerald	Chlorostilbon stenurus (Cabanis & Heine, 1860)	Colombia and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Green-tailed emerald	Chlorostilbon alice (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1848)	Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Short-tailed emerald Male Female	Chlorostilbon poortmani (Bourcier, 1843) Two subspecies C. p. poortmani C. p. euchloris	Colombia and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

Gallery

• 
  Short-tailed emerald, by John Gould
• 
  Glittering-bellied emerald