Chlorestes eliciae (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1846)

Species Overview

Chlorestes eliciae, also called the blue-throated goldentail, is a medium-sized hummingbird.

Adult Size Measurements

Adults measure 9 cm (3.5 in) long and weigh 3.6 g (0.13 oz) on average.

Male Morphometrics

For males, average wing length is 49.7 mm (1.96 in), average tail length is 26.7 mm (1.05 in), and average culmen length (measured from the base of the bill) is 18.2 mm (0.72 in).

Female Morphometrics

Females are slightly smaller than males, with an average wing length of 47.7 mm (1.88 in) and average tail length of 25.9 mm (1.02 in), but have a longer average bill at 19.4 mm (0.76 in).

Common Adult Plumage Features

Adults of this species have green crowns and upperparts, which transition to a metallic golden-green tail. Their wings are dusky, and their sides and belly are green. The throat is metallic blue-violet.

Adult Bill Features

The bill is straight, broad at the base, and coral red with a black tip.

Female Adult Plumage Differences

Females are paler overall than males, have more black on the bill and more grey on the throat, but still have bright golden-green upper tail coverts.

Shared Soft Part Features

Both male and female blue-throated goldentails have dark brown irises and toes.

Juvenile Plumage Timelines

After hatching, juvenile birds complete their preformative plumage between March and August. They develop their definitive prebasic plumage during the March–August period of the following year.

First-Year Female Juvenile Changes

During the first year after hatching, female juveniles undergo distinct plumage and bill changes: their initially blackish culmen fades to a dusky color with red wash covering 50% of the bill base, their throat's original greenish-blue spotting becomes more extensive dark-blue spotting, and the cinnamon tips on their outer rectrices vanish as their plumage matures.

First-Year Male Juvenile Changes

Male juveniles develop differently: their culmen changes from dusky with partial red coloration to bright red on 75% of the bill base, their throat's dark-blue spotting grows larger, and the gray edges on their feathers fade.

Sex-Specific Juvenile Trait Differences

Unlike female juveniles, male juveniles never have cinnamon tips on outer rectrices, and their black bill tip contrasts far more with their bright red bill base than the contrast seen in female juveniles.

Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird Comparison

Blue-throated goldentail can sometimes be confused with the rufous-tailed hummingbird, but the rufous-tailed hummingbird is larger, has a longer rufous tail, a green throat and breast (unlike the blue-throated goldentail's blue throat), and a more curved, paler bill.

Blue-Headed Sapphire Comparison

It also resembles the blue-headed sapphire, which differs by having a blue crown and blue sides of the head, a green throat, and a blue tail.

Range Overlap With Blue-Headed Sapphire

The ranges of blue-throated goldentail and blue-headed sapphire overlap in extreme eastern Panama and northwestern Colombia, but there is no evidence the two species occur sympatrically.

Lek Singing Variation

Male blue-throated goldentails sing in leks. Their song varies greatly between different leks, and less commonly varies within a single lek.

Typical Song Structure

The song is typically a phrase of 5 to 8 notes: the first note is a piercing tseee, followed by a series of single notes, double notes, or short trills. A male usually gives 1 to 3 of these phrases, pauses, then repeats.

Recorded Song Examples

Recorded examples include seee; sa se sa se sase; tseet twosip twosip twosip; and zeee wrrr zewet zewet zewet.

Call Types

The call of the blue-throated goldentail is described as a high, buzzy tzip or tzet; the aggressive call is a sharp, liquid, descending twitter.

Nonvocal Sounds

No nonvocal sounds have been documented other than the whirring or humming sound produced by wing flapping.

Geographic Distribution

The blue-throated goldentail is endemic to the Americas. Its range extends from southern Mexico to western Panama along both the Pacific and Atlantic slopes, with a few recorded occurrences in northern Chocó, Colombia.

Typical Elevational Range

It occupies lowlands and valleys, with a typical maximum elevational range of 950 m above sea level in Costa Rica and 1000 m above sea level in Mexico.

Elevational Range Extremes

However, some specimens have been recorded as high as 2000 m above sea level in Braulio National Park, Costa Rica, and in El Salvador.

Movement Patterns

Seasonal movements of the blue-throated goldentail are poorly documented. It is considered resident throughout most of its range and is generally sedentary, though it may wander locally during flowering seasons.

High-Elevation Occurrence Hypothesis

Researchers have suggested that these unusual high-elevation records could be a result of climate change: as high-elevation bird species decline in abundance, lower-elevation species like the blue-throated goldentail have started moving to higher elevations.

Habitat Types

The species' natural habitats include humid to semihumid forest, second-growth forest, plantations, semi-open areas, light woodland, gardens, and gallery forest in drier regions.