Violet-capped Woodnymph

About the Violet-capped Woodnymph

The violet-capped woodnymph (Thalurania glaucopis) is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The violet-capped woodnymph was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus and coined the binomial name Trochilus glaucopis. Gmelin based his description on "L'oiseau-mouche à queue fourchue du Brésil" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson from a preserved specimen that had been sent to Paris from Brazil. The violet-capped woodnymph is now placed with three other woodnymphs in the genus Thalurania that was introduced in 1848 by the English ornithologist John Gould. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek thalos meaning "child" with ouranos meaning "heaven". The specific epithet glaucopis is from the Ancient Greek glaukos meaning "blue-grey" or "glaucous" with ōps meaning "face". The species is treated as monotypic: no subspecies... Wikipedia →