Black-throated Brilliant Heliodoxa schreibersii Scientific name definitions
Text last updated January 28, 2015
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Species names in all available languages
| Language | Common name |
|---|---|
| Catalan | colibrí diamant gorjanegre |
| Czech | kolibřík zelenoprsý |
| Dutch | Zwartkeelbriljantkolibrie |
| English | Black-throated Brilliant |
| English (United States) | Black-throated Brilliant |
| French | Brillant à gorge noire |
| French (France) | Brillant à gorge noire |
| German | Brustband-Brillantkolibri |
| Japanese | ノドグロテリハチドリ |
| Norwegian | svartstrupebriljant |
| Polish | brylancik czarnolicy |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | brilhante-de-garganta-preta |
| Portuguese (Portugal) | Brilhante-de-garganta-preta |
| Russian | Черногорлый бриллиант |
| Serbian | Crnogrli brilijantni kolibri |
| Slovak | briliantovec čiernohrdlý |
| Spanish | Brillante Ventrinegro |
| Spanish (Ecuador) | Brillante Gorginegro |
| Spanish (Peru) | Brillante de Garganta Negra |
| Spanish (Spain) | Brillante ventrinegro |
| Swedish | svartstrupig briljant |
| Turkish | Kara Karınlı Pırıltı |
| Ukrainian | Колібрі-діамант чорногорлий |
Heliodoxa schreibersii (Bourcier, 1847)
Definitions
- HELIODOXA
- schreibersii
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Originally Appeared in
Introduction
Taxonomic note: Lump. This account is a combination of multiple species accounts originally published in HBW Alive. That content has been combined and labeled here at the subspecies level. Moving forward we will create a more unified account for this parent taxon. Please consider contributing your expertise to update this account.
Black-throated Brilliants are large, dark hummingbirds. Males are black below while females are grayish underneath. Both males and females have a small purple throat patch, but it’s often difficult to see. Females do have a visible white or rufous malar stripe below the eye, which is helpful in their identification. These hummingbirds inhabit tall humid forests and scrub where they primarily forage in the shaded understory, searching for nectar or hawking for insects.
Field Identification
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
11·5–13 cm; male 9·9 g, female 7·1–8·5 g. Bill almost straight and dark in colour (2·8 cm). Male has forehead glittering green, crown and rest of upperparts shining green; underparts black with a glittering purple spot on lower throat, bordered below by a narrow band of glittering green; tail very long, deeply forked, steel blue. Female resembles male but has whitish to rufous malar stripe ; underparts grey with bronze-green discs and central tail feathers green; tail less deeply forked. Juvenile resembles female, but malar stripe more deeply coloured.
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
13–14 cm. Previously treated as conspecific with H. schreibersii. Bill almost straight and dark (2·8 cm). Male has forehead, crown and rest of upperparts shining green; underparts (including flanks) black with a glittering purple spot on lower throat; tail very long, deeply forked, steel blue. Female resembles male but has whitish to rufous malar stripe; underparts grey with bronze-green discs and central tail feathers green; tail as long as in male. Juvenile resembles female, but malar stripe more deeply coloured.Systematics History
Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Formerly separated, with H. whitelyana, in genus Ionolaima. Probably closely related to H. aurescens. Hitherto considered conspecific with H. whitelyana. Monotypic.Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
Formerly separated, with H. schreibersii, in genus Ionolaima. Probably closely related to H. aurescens. Hitherto considered conspecific with H. schreibersii, but differs in lack of glittering green breastband (2); lack of green frons (3); black vs green flanks, making for overall blacker underparts (2); female tail as long as male’s (shorter in schreibersii) (1) (not fully verified owing to small sample size, but score presumably at least 1). Monotypic.Subspecies
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated) Heliodoxa schreibersii schreibersii Scientific name definitions
Systematics History
Heliodoxa schreibersii schreibersii (Bourcier, 1847)
Trochilus Schreibersii Bourcier, 1847, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, vol. 15, p. 43. Upper Rio Negro, Brazil (Bourcier 1847b, Peters 1945)
Bourcier (1847b) stated that the holotype was an adult male, but his description is that of a young male or a female (Zimmer 1951). Zimmer (1951) further points out that von Pelzeln (1868) suggested a female specimen was sent to Loddiges from Natterer's collections, and was subsequently examined and described by Bourcier (1847b).
Distribution
The nominate subspecies is found from southeastern Colombia (Fitzpatrick and Williard 1982, Salaman et al. 1999, 2002b, Bohórquez 2002, Ayerbe-Quiñones et al. 2008, Calderón-Leytón et al. 2011), through eastern Ecuador (Chapman 1926a, Balchin and Toyne 1998, Guevara et al. 2010, Freile et al. 2014, 2015, Greeney et al. 2018) to northeastern Peru (to San Martín) (Sclater and Salvin 1873a, Bond 1954, Cardiff 1983, Davis 1986, Capparella 1987, Stotz and Alván 2007, 2011) and, in lower numbers, eastward into Amazonian Brazil, at least to the upper Rio Negro (Grantsau 1988, Sick 1993, 1997, Vielliard 1994). Taczanowski (1874a) reported nominate schreibersii from Maraynioc in Junín (c. 11°22’S, 75°24’W; Stephens and Traylor 1983), a record doubted by Zimmer (1951) who suggested that birds from that region were best assigned to whitelyana. Despite the fact that Zimmer (1951) was unable to examine this specimen from Junín, subsequent specimens from that region (Schulenberg et al. 1984) support Zimmer’s supposition that the record pertained to whitelyana (Peters 1945, Heynan 1999, Schulenberg et al. 2010, del Hoyo et al. 2015).
Heliodoxa schreibersii schreibersii (Bourcier, 1847)
Definitions
- HELIODOXA
- schreibersii
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted) Heliodoxa schreibersii whitelyana Scientific name definitions
Systematics History
Heliodoxa schreibersii whitelyana (Gould, 1872)
Iolaema Whitelyana Gould, 1872, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th Series, vol.10, p. 452. Cosnipata, Cuzco, Peru (Gould 1872, Cory 1918)
Subspecies whitelyana is sometimes considered a separate species from the nominate form (see Systematic History).
Distribution
This Peruvian endemic subspecies is found east of the Andes from Pasco (Schulenberg et al. 1984), Ucayali (Harvey et al. 2011), and Junín (Taczanowski 1874a, Zimmer 1951), southward to Puno (Peters 1945, Egg 1968), but most reports are from eastern Cuzco and western Madre de Dios (Clayton et al. 1992, Walker et al. 2006, Jankowski 2010, Schulenberg et al. 2010, Robbins et al. 2011, Jankowski et al. 2013).
Heliodoxa schreibersii whitelyana (Gould, 1872)
Definitions
- HELIODOXA
- schreibersii
- whitelyana / whitelyanus / whitelyi
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Distribution
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
SE Colombia, E Ecuador and NE Peru (S to San Martín) to extreme NW Amazonian Brazil (upper R Negro).
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
CE & SE Peru (Pasco and Junín to N Cuzco (2), and W Madre de Dios).
Habitat
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Interior of tall humid forest and scrub in tropical and upper tropical zones at elevations between 400 and 1000 m, locally up to 1450 m in E Ecuador and exceptionally at 1900 m in same region (3).
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
Humid montane forest at elevations of 600–1250 m.Migration Overview
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Sedentary.Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
Presumably sedentary, like H. schreibersii.Diet and Foraging
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Forages mainly at heights of c. 2–4 m in shady understorey. Feeds on nectar of flowering plants like ericads and Wercklea sp. (Malvaceae) (3). Insects are caught in the air by hawking.
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
No known differences from H. schreibersii.Sounds and Vocal Behavior
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Presumed song is a repeated, drawn-out, descending reeling trill of c. 4–5 seconds. Also a single “chup”, repeated at a rate of c. 1 note/second.
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
Presumed song is a repeated, drawn-out, descending reeling trill lasting c. 3 seconds (sample size too small to determine if different from H. schreibersii).
Breeding
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Feb–May, but an active nest recorded also in Oct Ornithological Note . Clutch two white eggs; incubation by female. No further information.
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
No data.Conservation Status
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-throated)
Not globally threatened (Least Concern). CITES II. Seems to be rather uncommon and rare in NE Peru, but scarcity of reliable data concerning abundance makes overall assessment difficult.
Black-throated Brilliant (Black-breasted)
Not globally threatened. CITES II. Seems to be rather uncommon and patchily distributed, but scarcity of reliable data concerning abundance makes overall assessment difficult. Recorded in Manu National Park, Peru, and recently discovered in N Cuzco, partially filling the gap in the species’ known range (2). Although the species has a restricted range (estimated at 27,200 km²), it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence < 20,000 km² combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Although the population trend is apparently decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (> 30% decline over ten years or three generations). Population size unquantified, but it too is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (< 10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure).
