Bird Guide

Garden Emerald vs Red-billed Emerald

Garden Emerald (Chlorostilbon assimilis)

Garden Emerald

Chlorostilbon assimilis

Tiny3 gForest

The garden emerald is 7.8 to 8.5 cm (3.1 to 3.3 in) long and weighs about 3 to 4.1 g (0.11 to 0.14 oz). The adult male has dark metallic green upperparts with bluish green uppertail coverts. Its forked tail is blue-black and the central feathers have a light bluish green gloss. Its underparts are a brighter metallic green than the upperparts, sometimes with a light blue sheen, and it has white thigh tufts. The adult female has bright metallic green to bronze green upperparts with bluish green uppertail coverts. Voice: The garden emerald's vocalizations are not well known but appear to be similar to those of Canivet's emerald (Cynanthus canivetii). That species' song is believed to be "an endlessly repeated, characterless wiry tseee tseeree" and its call has been described as "a dry, scratchy chut or chit, sometimes run together into a soft, staccato chatter".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Garden Emerald
Recorded by Gean Carlo Valdés · Call · Islas secas, Panama · CC0
Photo: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K · CC BY 2.0
Red-billed Emerald (Chlorostilbon gibsoni)

Red-billed Emerald

Chlorostilbon gibsoni

Tiny3 gWoodland

The red-billed emerald is 7.6 to 9 cm (3.0 to 3.5 in) long and weighs about 2.8 g (0.099 oz). The males of all three subspecies have a straight bill with a mostly red mandible. The females' mandibles are red at the base. The bills are about 1.3 cm (0.51 in) long. Males of the nominate subspecies have dark bronze-green upperparts and a deeply forked blue-black tail. Their faces and underparts are glittering green to golden green. Nominate females are shining green above and plain gray below with dusky cheeks and a short white line behind the eye. Voice: The red-billed emerald's song is "a continuous series of wiry trilled notes, 'wirrr...wirrr...wirrr...'". It also makes "high-pitched penetrating 'tseeee' and a reedy 'tzreee'" calls.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Garden Emerald and Red-billed Emerald.