Eastern Long-tailed Hermit

About the Eastern Long-tailed Hermit

The long-tailed hermit (Phaethornis superciliosus) is a large hummingbird that is a resident breeder in Venezuela, the Guianas, and north-eastern Brazil. This species was formerly referred to as the eastern long-tailed hermit.

The long-tailed hermit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Trochilus superciliosus. Linnaeus based his description on the "colibry à longue queue de Cayenne" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The specific epithet is from Latin superciliosa meaning "eye-browed". The long-tailed hermit is now the type species of the genus Phaethornis that was introduced in 1827 by William Swainson.

Two subspecies are recognised: P. s. superciliosus (Linnaeus, 1766) – south Venezuela, the Guianas and north Brazil (north of the Amazon) P. s. muelleri Hellmayr, 1911 – north Brazil (south of the Amazon) The taxonomic history of this group is complicated, with similar hermit populations from both sides of the Andes being originally classed as a single long-tailed hermit species. The western population... Wikipedia →