Guanacaste hummingbird

Guanacaste hummingbird
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Trochilidae
Genus:	Saucerottia
Species:	S. alfaroana
Binomial name
Saucerottia alfaroana (Underwood, 1896)
Synonyms
Amazilia alfaroana

The Guanacaste hummingbird, also known as the Alfaro's hummingbird or Miravalles hummingbird ^[2] (Saucerottia alfaroana), is a possibly extinct species of hummingbird known only from a holotype collected in 1895 at the Miravalles Volcano in Costa Rica.

Taxonomy

It is usually treated as a subspecies of the Indigo-capped hummingbird or a hybrid between two unknown hummingbird species, but analysis of the holotype suggests it is its own species. ^[3]

Conservation

It is possibly extinct, but the ecological stability of the area where the specimen was found indicates a possible undiscovered population still existing. ^[4] The IUCN classifies it as critically endangered. ^[1]

References

1. BirdLife International (2021). "Amazilia alfaroana". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2021 e.T119194112A178574309. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T119194112A178574309.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Government of Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada (2009-10-08). "AMAZILIA ALFAROANA[1 record] - TERMIUM Plus® — Search - TERMIUM Plus®". www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
3. Kirwan, Guy M.; Collar, Nigel J. (2016-11-10). "The 'foremost ornithological mystery of Costa Rica': Amazilia alfaroana Underwood, 1896". Zootaxa. 4189 (2): 244–250. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4189.2.2. ISSN   1175-5334. PMID   27988731.
4. "Lost Birds". re:wild. Retrieved 2022-04-20.