Chlorostilbon mellisugus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The blue-tailed emerald (Chlorostilbon mellisugus) is a hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in tropical and subtropical South America east of the Andes from Colombia east to the Guianas and Trinidad, and south to northern Bolivia and central Brazil.
The blue-tailed emerald was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Trochilus mellisugus. The specific epithet combines the Latin mel meaning "honey" and sugere meaning "to suck". Linnaeus's description was typically brief and it was unclear which species he was describing. When he updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition in 1766 Linnaeus added citations including one to the "all-green humming-bird" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist George Edwards in his Gleanings of Natural History. The identity still remained uncertain but in 1950 the American ornithologist John T. Zimmer argued that the species Trochilus mellisugus described by Linnaeus could only have been the blue-tailed emerald. This has been generally accepted. Zimmer... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 2 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 5 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 6 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 7 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 8 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-tailed Emerald sighting in Henri Pittier National Park on a given day, based on 32 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 281st most-seen of the 358 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-tailed Emerald in Henri Pittier National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May to March, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-tailed Emerald sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Blue-tailed Emerald sightings, Henri Pittier National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Manu National Park (Peru, about 20%), Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, under 5%) and Sierra de la Macarena National Park (Colombia, under 5%).
Same family: Trochilidae
The closest relatives of the Blue-tailed Emerald that you can see in Henri Pittier National Park (family Trochilidae, Hummingbirds) are Long-tailed Sylph (about 30%), White-vented Plumeleteer (about 30%) and Copper-rumped Hummingbird (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-tailed Emerald is recorded against all the birds logged in Henri Pittier National Park (32 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
