Blue-throated Goldentail

Chlorestes eliciae (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1846)

Spanish: Zafiro Garganta Azul · IOC: Blue-throated sapphire

The Blue-throated Goldentail (Chlorestes eliciae) is a hummingbird in the subfamily Trochilinae (mountain gems, bees and emeralds), tribe Trochilini (emeralds). It weighs about 3.6 g and its bill is 18.3 mm long. It lives in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico. Its IUCN Red List status is Least concern, with a decreasing population.

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At a glance

Weight

3.6 g, about 4 paperclips

Bill

18.3 mm

Lives in

Forest

Moves

Stays put all year

Red List status

Least concern, decreasing

Its place in the family

1. Family Trochilidae hummingbirds
2. Subfamily Trochilinae mountain gems, bees and emeralds
3. Tribe Trochilini emeralds
4. Genus Chlorestes emeralds, goldentails, sapphires

Where it lives · 8 countries

• Costa Rica
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• El Salvador
• Colombia
• Mexico

Others in the genus Chlorestes

• White-bellied Emerald Chlorestes candida
• White-chinned Sapphire Chlorestes cyanus
• Violet-bellied Hummingbird Chlorestes julie
• Blue-chinned Sapphire Chlorestes notata

Sources

Names: eBird/Clements Checklist (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), IOC World Bird List. Groups: Dickinson & Remsen (2013) and McGuire et al. (2014). Weight, bill, habitat and movement: AVONET (Tobias et al. 2022, CC BY 4.0). Countries: BirdLife International DataZone, checked against eBird records via GBIF. Red List status and trend: BirdLife International, the IUCN Red List authority for birds.

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