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Gilded Sapphire | Hylocharis chrysura
Gouden saffierkolibrie | Zafiro bronceado | Beija-flor-dourado
The Gilded Sapphire is a medium-sized, golden-green hummingbird with a red bill and a golden-copper tail. It lives in dry forest, gallery forest and semi-open country in southern South America. In the guide area it occurs only in Bolivia.
Voice
A dry, repeated tchip and a fast, rattling twitter, especially during chases. The song is a series of high, scratchy notes.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9–10 cm, with a straight, red bill with a black tip. Both sexes are bronze-green above and golden green to bronze-green below, with a small rufous chin. The tail is golden copper to coppery bronze. The female is duller, with a greyer belly. Young birds have brownish fringes to the head feathers.
Confusion species
Rufous-throated Sapphire Hylocharis sapphirina has, in the male, a violet-blue throat and a more rufous tail. Glittering-bellied Emerald Chlorostilbon lucidus is smaller, with a dark blue, forked tail and, in the male, a glittering blue-green throat. White-bellied Hummingbird Elliotomyia chionogaster has white underparts and a largely dark bill.
Habitat
Dry forest, gallery forest, savanna with woodland patches, scrub, parks and gardens, from the lowlands up to about 1500 m in the Andean foothills. It takes nectar from flowering trees and shrubs and catches small insects. The cup nest is placed on a branch or twig, often low.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Bolivia in the lowlands of the centre, east and south, in the Chaco and in the Andean foothills in the south. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Paraguay, central and southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Look at flowering trees and shrubs along forest edges, rivers and in gardens around Santa Cruz de la Sierra and in the foothills in the south. Birds often defend a flowering tree against other hummingbirds.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range and tolerates man-made habitats such as parks and gardens.
Scientific name
Hylocharis chrysura | (Shaw, 1812)
Shaw described the species in 1812 as Trochilus chrysurus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Hylocharis was introduced in 1831 by Boie. The genus name combines Greek hulē, 'woodland', with kharis, 'beauty'. The species name comes from Greek khrusos, 'gold', and oura, 'tail'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.