Scintillant Hummingbird

Selasphorus scintilla (Gould, 1851)

Spanish: Colibrí Centelleante

The Scintillant Hummingbird (Selasphorus scintilla) is a hummingbird in the subfamily Trochilinae (mountain gems, bees and emeralds), tribe Mellisugini (bees). It weighs about 2.2 g and its bill is 14.1 mm long. It lives in Costa Rica and Panama. Its IUCN Red List status is Least concern, with a decreasing population.

See it in the explorer eBird page ↗

At a glance

Weight

2.2 g, about 2 paperclips

Bill

14.1 mm

Lives in

Gardens & towns

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 Mellisugini bees
4. Genus Selasphorus

What Selasphorus share: Includes some of the longest-migrating hummingbirds, such as the Rufous Hummingbird.

Where it lives · 2 countries

• Costa Rica
• Panama

Others in the genus Selasphorus

• Volcano Hummingbird Selasphorus flammula
• Glow-throated Hummingbird Selasphorus ardens
• Wine-throated Hummingbird Selasphorus ellioti
• Bumblebee Hummingbird Selasphorus heloisa
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird Selasphorus platycercus
• Allen's Hummingbird Selasphorus sasin
• Rufous Hummingbird Selasphorus rufus
• Calliope Hummingbird Selasphorus calliope

Sources

Names: eBird/Clements Checklist (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). 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.

Spotted a mistake, or have a photo of this species? Write to Lia