Violet-throated Starfrontlet

About the Violet-throated Starfrontlet

The violet-throated starfrontlet (Coeligena violifer) is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Bolivia and Peru and possibly Ecuador. The violet-throated starfrontlet and most other members of genus Coeligena were at one time placed in genus Helianthea but have been in their current placement since the mid-1900s. Its taxonomy is otherwise unsettled. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC), the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy all treat it as one species with four subspecies. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats each of those subspecies as a separate species. The subspecies are:

C. v. dichroura ("Huanuco" starfrontlet) Taczanowski (1874) C. v. albicaudata ("Apurimac" starfrontlet) Schuchmann & Züchner (1998) C. v. osculans ("Cuzco" starfrontlet) Gould (1871) C. v. violifer ("Bolivian" starfrontlet) Gould (1846)

All four subspecies of violet-throated starfrontlet are 13 to 14.5 cm (5.1 to 5.7 in) long. All have long, straight, black bills... Wikipedia →