Sunangel
| Sunangel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Heliangelus mavors | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Apodiformes |
| Family: | Trochilidae |
| Tribe: | Lesbiini |
| Genus: | Heliangelus Gould, 1848 |
| Type species | |
| Ornismya clarisse[1] Longuemare, 1841 | |
The sunangels are a genus of hummingbirds, Heliangelus, found in montane South America.
Taxonomy
[edit]The genus Heliangelus was introduced in 1848 by the English ornithologist John Gould.[2] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ἡλιος/hēlios meaning "sun" with αγγελος/angelos meaning "angel".[3] Gould did not specify a type species but in 1855 George Gray designated the type as Trochilus clarissae Longuemare which is Ornismya clarisse Longuemare, 1841, Longuemare's sunangel.[4][5]
The genus contains the following nine species:[6]
- Orange-throated sunangel, Heliangelus mavors – Colombia and Venezuela
- Amethyst-throated sunangel, Heliangelus amethysticollis – south Ecuador to northwest Bolivia
- Longuemare's sunangel, Heliangelus clarisse – east Colombia and west Venezuela
- Merida sunangel, Heliangelus spencei – Mérida (northwest Venezuela)
- Gorgeted sunangel, Heliangelus strophianus – southwest Colombia and northwest Ecuador
- Tourmaline sunangel, Heliangelus exortis – Colombia and northwest Ecuador
- Flame-throated sunangel, Heliangelus micraster – Ecuador and Peru
- Purple-throated sunangel, Heliangelus viola – Ecuador and Peru
- Royal sunangel, Heliangelus regalis – north Peru
The Bogotá sunangel was formerly placed in this genus. It is regarded as a hybrid specimen by AviList based on a study published in 2018 by Jorge Pérez-Emán and colleagues.[6][7]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Trochilidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
- ↑ Gould, John (1848). "Drafts for a new arrangement of the Trochilidae (continued)". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 16 (180): 11-14 [12].
- ↑ Jobling, James A. "Heliangelus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
- ↑ Gray, George Robert (1855). Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds Contained in the British Museum. London: British Museum. p. 22.
- ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 105.
- 1 2 AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 19 March 2026.
- ↑ Pérez-Emán, J.L.; Ferreira, J.P.; Gutiérrez-Pinto, N.; Cuervo, A.M.; Céspedes, L.N.; Witt, C.C.; Cadena, C.D. (2018). "An extinct hummingbird species that never was: a cautionary tale about sampling issues in molecular phylogenetics". Zootaxa. 4442 (3): 491–497. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4442.3.11.
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