Mangrove hummingbird

The mangrove hummingbird was formally described in 1877 by the French ornithologist Étienne Mulsant from a specimen collected by Adolphe Boucard near Puntarenas in Costa Rica. Mulsant placed the new species in the genus Arena and coined the binomial name Arena boucardi.[4] The mangrove hummingbird is now placed in the genus Amazilia that was introduced in 1843 by the French naturalist René Lesson.[5][6] The genus name comes from the Inca heroine in Jean-François Marmontel's novel Les Incas, ou la destruction de l'Empire du Pérou. The specific epithet was chosen to honour the collector Boucard.[7] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[6]

The mangrove hummingbird is 9.5 to 11 cm (3.7 to 4.3 in) long and weighs about 4.5 g (0.16 oz). Both sexes have a medium length bill, slightly decurved, with a black maxilla and a reddish mandible with a dusky tip. Adult males have golden to bronze-green upperparts and flanks. Their chin, throat, and breast are glittering bluish green with white bars near the end of the chin feathers. Their belly is whitish with bronze-green sides and their undertail coverts are white. The slightly forked tail is bronzy green; the outer feathers have blackish outer edges and tips. Adult females are similar to males, but with less green on the underparts and grayish tips on the outermost tail feathers. Immature birds resemble adult females but are more grayish below.[8]

One form of vocalization has been described in words as a "soft djt sound that is rapid and given in a descending twitter."[8]

The mangrove hummingbird is sedentary. It is found only on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It inhabits large stands of tea mangrove Pelliciera rhizophorae and sometimes adjacent terrestrial second growth. Its distribution is not continuous.[8]

The IUCN originally assessed the mangrove hummingbird as Threatened, then in 1994 as Vulnerable, and since 2000 as Endangered. It has a restricted range and habitat requirements. Its estimated population of between 1500 and 7000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. Its mangrove habitat is continuing to be destroyed for salt evaporation, shrimp farming, charcoal production, and human habitation. Though cutting mangroves is illegal in Costa Rica, the law is widely ignored. Road and dike construction has affected some areas by altering their hydrology. Pollution, especially from Puntarenas on the Golfo de Nicoya, has also degraded mangrove stands. The species' habitat is protected in a few small reserves.[1]