Calothorax lucifer
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The lucifer sheartail or lucifer hummingbird (Calothorax lucifer) is a medium-sized, 10 cm long, green hummingbird with a slightly curved bill and distinctive outward flare of its gorget feathers. Its habitat is in high-altitude areas of northern Mexico and southwestern United States. It winters in central Mexico.
The lucifer sheartail was formally described in 1827 by the English zoologist William Swainson based on a specimen collected at Temascaltepec in central Mexico. Swainson placed the species in the genus Cynanthus and coined the binomial name Cynanthus lucifer. The specific epithet lucifer is Latin meaning "light-bearing" from lux, lucis meaning "light" and -fera meaning "-bearing". The lucifer sheartail is now placed with the beautiful sheartail in the genus Calothorax that was introduced in 1840 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray.
The lucifer sheartail is a medium-sized, 10-centimetre (3.9 in) long, green hummingbird with a long curved bill, small wings, and white streak behind its eye. The male has an iridescent plumage, forked dark tail, green crown, long magenta gorget, and white underparts. The female is larger with duller plumage... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lucifer Hummingbird sighting in Mexico City on a given day, based on 154 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 197th most-seen of the 332 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lucifer Hummingbird in Mexico City on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lucifer Hummingbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Mexico City, in our data
Mexico City is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Lucifer Hummingbird sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Trochilidae
The closest relatives of the Lucifer Hummingbird that you can see in Mexico City (family Trochilidae, Hummingbirds) are Berylline Hummingbird (about 60%), Broad-billed Hummingbird (about 50%) and White-eared Hummingbird (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lucifer Hummingbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Mexico City (154 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
