Canivet's Emerald

About the Canivet's Emerald

Canivet's emerald (Cynanthus canivetii) is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

The taxonomic history of Canivet's emerald is complicated. The North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy assign it the binomial Cynanthus canivetii. However, as of 2020 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) retains it in its earlier genus Chlorostilbon.

As currently (2022) accepted by the above three worldwide taxonomic systems, Canivet's emerald has three subspecies, the nominate Cynanthus canivetii canivetii, C. c. osberti, and C. c. salvini. However, some authors treat the last two as a single subspecies or species, Salvin's emerald. Others expand C. canivetii to include all of the species now in genus Chlorostilbon under the binomial Chlorostilbon canivetii and the English name fork-tailed emerald, and still others call this combined entity the blue-tailed emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus)... Wikipedia →