Short-tailed Emerald

About the Short-tailed Emerald

The short-tailed emerald (Chlorostilbon poortmani) is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. It has also been called Poortman's emerald hummingbird.

Two subspecies of short-tailed emerald are recognized by the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy. They are the nominate C. p. poortmani and C. p. euchloris. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World includes as a third subspecies what the other three taxonomic systems treat as a full species, the green-tailed emerald (C. alice). In addition, subspecies euchloris has been treated as a separate species by some authors.

The species' binomial name was given by Jules Bourcier (1797–1873), a French naturalist and expert on hummingbirds. The male short-tailed emerald is 6.9 to 8.5 cm (2.7 to 3.3 in) long and females 6.5 to 7.5 cm (2.6 to 3.0 in). The species weighs between 3 and 4 g (0.11 and 0.14 oz). Both sexes of both subspecies have a straight black bill. Males... Wikipedia →