Blue-chinned sapphire

Blue-chinned sapphire
Male C. n. notata, Trinidad
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Trochilidae
Genus:	Chlorestes
Species:	C. notata
Binomial name
Chlorestes notata (Reich, 1793)
Synonyms
Chlorostilbon notatus Chlorestes notatus

The blue-chinned sapphire (Chlorestes notata) is a hummingbird that breeds from Colombia south and east to the Guianas, Trinidad, Peru, and Brazil. There have been occasional records from Tobago. For Brazil, the species' range is along the main Amazon River Basin, as well as the Atlantic Forest, both in the northeast, as well as far south on the southeast coastal strip, (an entire coastal strip, north-east-south of about 3000 km). It is sometimes placed in the genus Chlorostilbon.

It is a bird of forests and sometimes cultivated areas with large trees. The female lays her eggs in a deep cup nest, made of lichen and other fine plant material and placed on a horizontal tree branch. Incubation is 16 days with a further 18–19 days to fledging.

The blue-chinned sapphire is 8.9 cm long and weighs 3.8 g. The bill is fairly straight, with the upper mandible black and the lower reddish. The male has mainly green plumage, darker above, with white thighs, a forked metallic blue tail and blue upper throat. The female differs from the male in that she has green-spotted white underparts.

Blue-chinned sapphires feed on insects and nectar, mainly in trees but sometimes on vines or smaller plants like Heliconia. The song is a high metallic ssooo-ssooo-ssooo.

References

• ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.). Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.
• Hilty, Steven L (2003). Birds of Venezuela. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.

External links

• Blue-chinned sapphire photo gallery VIREO