Long-tailed Sylph Aglaiocercus kingii Cometa Verdiazul

Long-tailed Sylph Aglaiocercus kingii
Colombian name: Cometa Verdiazul

Male Long-tailed Sylph, Rio Blanco, Caldas, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image

Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

The Long-tailed Sylph is distributed from northern Venezuela to the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International.

It is found in scrubland and clearings, gardens, etc. in the pre-montane zones. It is rarely found in forest unlike Violet-tailed Sylph A. coelestis.

It is similar to Violet-tailed Sylph but has a mainly green tail rather than violet-blue and the crown is glittering green rather than blue. That said, the sub-species A. k. mocoa shown in photos 4 and 5, along with other sub-species has a tail which shows quite bluish in certain lights.

In the past the Long-tailed and the Violet-tailed Sylphs have been considered as one species but their behaviour and habitats differ. There are 6 sub-species of Long-tailed Sylph and the one in photos 1 to 3 from Colombia, A. k. emmae is most notable for its lack of a small blue or violet throat patch found in most other sub-species such as in photo 4.

I think that photo 3 shows an immature male. The tail is rather short and there is a white patch on the lower back. Photo 6 shows a female.

Immature male Long-tailed Sylph, Rio Blanco, Caldas, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image

Long-tailed Sylph, Abra Patricia, Amazonas, Peru, October 2018 - click for larger image

Long-tailed Sylph, Guango Lodge, Ecuador, November 2019 - click for larger image

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