BeakBrain
Menu
Bird GuideDaily BirdCamsTripsCommunityGet the app

Rufous-throated Sapphire

Hylocharis sapphirina

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernNectarForestCup nestTiny · 4 g
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 1
Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 2
Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 3
Photo: filipeprates · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 4
Photo: filipeprates · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 5
Photo: Christoph Moning · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 6
Photo: Tristan Jobin · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 7
Photo: Laura Gaudette · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 8
Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library · CC BY 2.0
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 9
Photo: Lesson, R. P. · Public domain
Rufous-throated Sapphire (Hylocharis sapphirina), photo 10
Photo: filipeprates · CC BY 4.0

ID tip

The rufous-throated sapphire is 8.4 to 9.1 cm (3.3 to 3.6 in) long. Males weigh 4.1 to 4.5 g (0.14 to 0.16 oz) and females 3.9 to 4.3 g (0.14 to 0.15 oz). Males have a medium length, straight, coral red bill with a black tip; females' bills have less red. The species gets its English name from the males' intensely rufous chin; females' chins are a paler rufous. Adult males have dark green upperparts with coppery violet uppertail coverts. Their throat, chest, and belly are iridescent violet-blue and their undertail coverts chestnut. Voice: The Venezuelan and Brazilian populations of rufous-throated sapphire have different songs. The former is "a series of 4–7 bright, high-pitched notes...repeated every few seconds, 'sping...sping...sping ...' or more bisyllabic 'sping...spewee...spewee...spewee'." In Amzonian and southeastern Brazil it is "an irregularly repeated, drawn-out, high-pitched downslurred 'seeeeeee'.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Rufous-throated Sapphire

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is November, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Rufous-throated Sapphire

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 10 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Brazil Guyana Ecuador Suriname French Guiana Colombia Venezuela Peru Bolivia Paraguay

Recorded as a rare visitor in Argentina.

About the Rufous-throated Sapphire

The rufous-throated sapphire 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.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Gilded Sapphire (Hylocharis chrysura) Gilded SapphireHylocharis chrysuraThe gilded sapphire is 8 to 10 cm (3.1 to 3.9 in) long and weighs 4 to 5 g (0.14 to 0.18 oz).

Side by side: Gilded Sapphire vs Rufous-throated Sapphire

Learn the Rufous-throated Sapphire in the BeakBrain App

Photo and call practice. Coming soon to iPhone and Android.

Play today's Daily Bird

Every photo and recording on this page is credited to its author under the licence shown. Spotted a problem with this page, or have a better photo? Contribute.