Venezuelan sylph
The Venezuelan sylph (Aglaiocercus berlepschi) is a species of hummingbird. It is restricted to a small area of north-eastern Venezuela and is classed as an endangered species by BirdLife International. It is sometimes thought to be a subspecies of the Long-tailed Sylph (A. kingi).
| Venezuelan sylph | |
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| Species: | A. berlepschii
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| Binomial name | |
| Aglaiocercus berlepschi (Hartert, 1898)
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The male is 22 centimeters in length with the elongated outer tail-feathers accounting for 14-15 centimeters. Its color is mostly green. The throat is blue and the outer tail-feathers are violet, becoming blue towards the tips. The female is 9.5-11 centimeters long. The tail is shorter than that of the male but still fairly long and slightly forked. Females have a blue crown and white throat, breast and belly.
The Long-tailed Sylph is almost the same in color but does not overlap in range. Males of the subspecies caudatus have a mostly blue tail and no blue throat patch, while males of the subspecies margarethae have green tips to the tail-feathers. Females have a rufous breast and belly.
References
- BirdLife International (2007) Species factsheet: Aglaiocercus berlepschi. Archived 2009-01-02 at the Wayback Machine Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 16/9/2007.
- de Schauensee, Rodolphe Meyer & Phelps, William H. (1978) A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela, Princeton University Press.
Other websites
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Wikispecies has information on: Aglaiocercus berlepschi. |