Racket-tailed coquette

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Racket-tailed coquette
Trochilidae - Discosura longicauda.JPG
Mounted specimen of Discosura longicaudus, the racket-tailed coquette
CITES Appendix II (CITES) [2]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Strisores
Order: Apodiformes
Family: Trochilidae
Genus: Discosura
Species:
D. longicaudus
Binomial name
Discosura longicaudus
(Gmelin, JF, 1788)
Discosura longicaudus map.svg
Range of the racket-tailed coquette
Synonyms [3]

Discosura longicauda(Gmelin, 1788)

The racket-tailed coquette (Discosura longicaudus; sometimes Discosura longicauda) is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae native to northern South America.

Contents

Taxonomy

The racket-tailed coquette was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae . He placed it with all the other hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus and coined the binomial name Trochilus longicaudus. [4] Gmelin based his description on the "L'oiseau-mouche à raquettes" that had been described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. [5] Buffon did not specify the origin of his specimen but in 1902 Hans von Berlepsch and Ernst Hartert designated the type locality as Cayenne, French Guiana. [6] [7] The racket-tailed coquette is now placed with four other hummingbirds in the genus Discosura that was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. [8] [9] Formerly, ornithologists erroneously used the binomial name Discosura longicauda instead of Discosura longicaudus. [10] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek diskos meaning "plate" with oura meaning "tail". The specific epithet longicaudus combines the Latin longus meaning "long" and cauda meaning "tail". [11] The species is treated as monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. [9]

Racket-tailed coquettes illustrated in John Gould's A monograph of the Trochilidae MonographTrochi3Goul 0046.jpg
Racket-tailed coquettes illustrated in John Gould's A monograph of the Trochilidae

It is sometimes considered to be the only member of the genus Discosura , as the thorntails, the other possible members of the genus, are often placed in the genus Popelairia. [12] [13]

Martin Johnson Heade depicted two coquettes in his painting Two Green-Breasted Hummingbirds (c.1863), as part of his "Gems of Brazil". [14]

Description

The species weighs about 3.4 grams (0.12 oz) and is sexually dimorphic. The male is around 10.2 centimetres (4.0 in) long and has a distinctive brilliant green head and throat with a copper-coloured abdomen. The dark purple-brown tail is 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) long, and forked, with two very long prongs, ending with a pair of round paddle- ("racket") shaped feathers. The female is shorter with a length of 6.9 centimetres (2.7 in). It has duller green upperparts and breast, black throat bordered by white and a white belly. Its tail is grey tipped with white, [15] and lacks "rackets". [16]

Distribution and habitat

The racket-tailed coquette has a wide distribution range; it is found in northern Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and southern Venezuela. It is also found on the eastern tip of Brazil [12] Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, as well as riparian forests and scrubby savannahs. [13]

Behavior

Racket-tailed coquettes typically gather in the canopy of hapaxanth trees with other hummingbirds and steal other larger hummingbirds' nectar. They are consequently chased by the larger birds. [15]

They build their cup-sized nests out of soft plants and down 3–6 metres (9.8–19.7 ft) up a tree. Females usually have a clutch of two eggs, which are incubated for 13–14 days. [16]

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References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Discosura longicaudus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22687285A93146569. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22687285A93146569.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. "Discosura longicaudus (Gmelin, 1788)". Colaboraciones Americanas Sobre Aves. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  4. Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1788). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 498.
  5. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1779). "L'oiseau-mouche à raquettes". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 6. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. pp. 23–24.
  6. Berlepsch, Hans von; Hartert, Ernst (1902). "On the birds of the Orinoco region". Novitates Zoologicae. 9: 1–135 [89].
  7. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 35.
  8. Bonaparte, Charles Lucian (1850). Conspectus Generum Avium (in Latin). Vol. 1. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 84.
  9. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2022). "Hummingbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 12.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  10. David, Norman; Gosselin, Michel (2002). "Gender agreement of avian species names". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 122 (1): 14–49 [37, No. 161, 47].
  11. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  137, 229. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  12. 1 2 "Racket-tailed Coquette (Discosura longicauda)". The Internet Bird Collection. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
  13. 1 2 Sedgwick, Carolyn W. (2011). T. S. Schulenberg (ed.). "Discosura longicaudus". Neotropical Birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology . Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  14. Theodore E. Jr., Stebbins; Comey, Janet L.; Quinn, Karen E. (2000). The Life and Work of Martin Johnson Heade: A Critical Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. Yale University Press. p. 71. ISBN   978-0-300-08183-1 . Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  15. 1 2 Hilty, Steven L. (2002). Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press. p. 408. ISBN   1400834090.
  16. 1 2 "Racket-tailed Coquette (Discosura longicaudus)". Planetofbirds.com. 8 May 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2013.