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 Sierra de la Macarena National Park on a given day, based on 29 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 227th most-seen of the 418 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.
January, March and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-tailed Emerald in Sierra de la Macarena National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, April–September and November–December, 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.
3rd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Blue-tailed Emerald sightings, Sierra de la Macarena National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Manu National Park (Peru, about 20%) and Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, under 5%).
Same family: Trochilidae
The closest relatives of the Blue-tailed Emerald that you can see in Sierra de la Macarena National Park (family Trochilidae, Hummingbirds) are Sooty-capped Hermit (about 10%), Glittering-throated Emerald (about 10%) and White-vented Plumeleteer (about 10%), 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 Sierra de la Macarena National Park (29 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.
