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White-chinned Sapphire | Chlorestes cyanus
Witkinsaffierkolibrie | Zafiro gorgiblanco | Beija-flor-roxo
The White-chinned Sapphire is a widespread hummingbird of the South American lowlands, from the Caribbean coast to eastern Brazil. The male has a violet-blue head and throat with a small white chin spot and a red bill. It lives mainly in semi-open country and at forest edges and over much of its range is local and variable in numbers.
Voice
A dry twittering and short, high notes; the song is a series of high, squeaky notes.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9 cm, with a straight, red bill with a black tip. The male has a glittering violet-blue head and throat, a small white spot on the chin, a green back and belly and a blue-black tail. The female is green above and greyish white below, with green spots on the flanks; the lower mandible is red and the outer tail feathers have grey tips. Young birds resemble the female.
Confusion species
Blue-headed Sapphire Chrysuronia grayi is very similar but lacks the white chin spot and lives west of the Andes. Rufous-throated Sapphire Hylocharis sapphirina has a rufous chin, a violet-blue throat and breast and a rufous tail. Golden-tailed Sapphire Chrysuronia oenone has a golden-copper tail. Blue-chinned Sapphire Chlorestes notata is all green, with a dark upper mandible and a blue chin.
Habitat
Forest edges, secondary forest, gallery forest, várzea, savanna with trees, plantations and gardens, mainly in the lowlands up to about 1000 m. It takes nectar at all levels, including the canopy of flowering trees, and catches small insects. The cup nest is placed on a branch or in a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Caribbean lowlands in the north and east of the Andes in the llanos and Amazonia. In Ecuador scarce and local in the eastern lowlands. In Peru in the eastern lowlands. In Bolivia in the lowlands of the north and east. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the Guianas and much of Brazil, south to the Atlantic Forest.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Look at flowering trees and shrubs along forest edges, riverbanks and in gardens in the lowlands; the male often perches on a bare branch near a flowering tree.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a very large range and also occurs in man-made landscapes.
Scientific name
Chlorestes cyanus | (Vieillot, 1818)
Vieillot described the species in 1818 as Trochilus cyanus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Chlorestes was introduced in 1854 by Reichenbach. The genus name combines Greek khlōros, 'green', with esthēs, 'clothing', so 'green-clad'. The species name comes from Greek kuanos, 'dark blue'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.