The Green-bellied Hummingbird (Amazilia viridigaster), also known as the Tepui Hummingbird and sometimes placed in the genus Saucerottia, is a species of hummingbird

Hummingbird

Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings...

 in the Trochilidae family. It is found in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, and Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

.

Taxonomy

The western taxa of the Andean slopes and the eastern taxa of the Tepui

Tepui

A tepui , or tepuy, is a table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana....

 region are sometimes considered separate species, with the former retaining the scientific and common name

Common name

A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

, while the latter is named the Copper-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia cupreicauda, with races duidae and laireti), also sometimes placed in the genus Saucerottia. As the variation largely is clinal

Cline (population genetics)

In biology, an ecocline or simply cline describes an ecotone in which a series of biocommunities display continuous gradient...

, most authorities, notably SACC, consider it a single species.

Distribution and habitat

Its natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s are subtropical or tropical dry forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane

Montane

In biogeography, montane is the highland area located below the subalpine zone. Montane regions generally have cooler temperatures and often have higher rainfall than the adjacent lowland regions, and are frequently home to distinct communities of plants and animals.The term "montane" means "of the...

s, and heavily degraded former forest.

Further reading

• Snow, B.K. & Snow, D.W. (1974). "Breeding of the Green-bellied Hummingbird." The Auk 91(3)