Bird Guide

Great Sapphirewing vs Mexican Violetear

Great Sapphirewing (Pterophanes cyanopterus)

Great Sapphirewing

Pterophanes cyanopterus

Tiny9 gForest

The great sapphirewing is one of the largest hummingbirds; only the two of genus Topaza and the giant hummingbird (Patagona gigas) are larger. It is 15.5 to 19 cm (6.1 to 7.5 in) long including the 3.6 cm (1.4 in) bill. Males weigh between 9.6 and 11.2 g (0.34 and 0.40 oz) and females 8.4 to 11 g (0.30 to 0.39 oz). Both sexes have a small white spot behind the eye. Males of the nominate subspecies have dark shining blue-green upperparts. The wing is mostly shining blue and the tail greenish black. The underparts are also blue-green but somewhat bluer than the upperparts. Voice: The great sapphirewing's vocalizations include "a high, thin, liquid chatter", a "drawn-out piercing high-pitched zeee", and " agitated titititirrr".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Great Sapphirewing
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call · Pichincha: Yanacocha, Volcán Pichincha, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: (c) Giovanni Bermúdez Bohórquez, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Giovanni Bermúdez Bohórquez · cc-by
Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus)

Mexican Violetear

Colibri thalassinus

Tiny6 gForest

The Mexican violetear is roughly medium-sized by hummingbird standards. It averages around 9.7 to 12 cm (3.8 to 4.7 in) in total length. Its bill is black and mostly straight with only a slight downward curve and measures from 1.8 to 2.5 cm (0.71 to 0.98 in). The body mass can vary from 4.8 to 5.6 g (0.17 to 0.20 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 5.8 to 6.8 cm (2.3 to 2.7 in) and the tail is 3.5 to 4.3 cm (1.4 to 1.7 in). The bird has a wingspan of 12 cm. It is shining green above with a glittering violet ear-patch on the sides of its neck. Voice: Solitary males sing from above, exposed twigs in their territory every day. Their song is a monotonously repeated sharp and dry "tsu-tzeek" at a rate of about one call per second.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: jons2 at pdphoto.org · Public domain

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Great Sapphirewing and Mexican Violetear.