Hylocharis sapphirina
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The rufous-throated sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina) is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guianas, Peru, Venezuela and possibly Argentina and Paraguay.
The rufous-throated sapphire was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus and coined the binomial name Trochilus sapphirinus. He gave the type locality as Guiana. Gmelin based his description on "Le saphir" that had been described in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and the "Sapphir humming-bird" that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham. The rufous-throated sapphire is now placed by most taxonomic systems with the gilded sapphire in genus Hylocharis that was introduced in 1831 by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World places it in genus Amazilia with the English name rufous-throated hummingbird... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Podocarpus National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-throated Sapphire sighting in Podocarpus National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 406th most-seen of the 446 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-throated Sapphire in Podocarpus National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-throated Sapphire sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Rufous-throated Sapphire sightings, Podocarpus National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 10%).
Same family: Trochilidae
The closest relatives of the Rufous-throated Sapphire that you can see in Podocarpus National Park (family Trochilidae, Hummingbirds) are Collared Inca (about 40%), Amethyst-throated Sunangel (about 40%) and Chestnut-breasted Coronet (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-throated Sapphire is recorded against all the birds logged in Podocarpus National Park (7 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.
