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Rarest Hummingbird species (1 Viewer)

Tiraya

Tiraya

San Diego CA
United Kingdom
Out of personal curiosity, who do folks these days consider the top 10 rarest hummingbird species? I'm assuming blue-bearded helmetcrest and Esmeraldas woodstar must be somewhere at the top. I know all the world species except for the "emerald" collective with their subspecies/species shifts and nonsense (someone remind me to look up the current taxonomic treating later), but nothing on the rarities of X species.
 
Check BLI Critical spp but off the top of my head and those with known extant populations:
Black-breasted Puffleg
Gorgetted Puffleg
Colourful Puffleg
Hook-billed Hermit
Chilean Woodstar
JF Firecrown

cheers, a
 
Well, there are some others:
The last three are in Colombia. Oh man, what a country!

That gives you 10 species that are on the brink, but still around.
 
What about Gray-bellied Comet and Purple-backed Sunbeam? The Sunbeam is maybe at the lower end of top 10 or even top 20, but the Comet, even if it is only classified as Endangered, merits CR status in my opinion.
 
Here are few more:

  • Honduran Emerald

  • Black-backed Thornbill

  • Ecuadorian Piedtail

  • Perija Metaltail

  • Glow-throated Hummingbird

  • Turquoise-throated Puffleg

Last one is possibly extinct species, but lets hope for the best as Blue-bearded Helmetcrest was rediscovered recently after 69 years!
 
Some interesting discussion here. Didn't know glow-throated was rare, but it is clear from google images and its sole photograph of glow-throated that it must be (I'm not sure I actually know what males look like).
 
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Silverwolf said:
Some interesting discussion here. Didn't know glow-throated was rare, but it is clear from google images and its sole photograph of glow-throated that it must be (I'm not sure I actually know what males look like).
Click to expand...

Yes, I forgot Glow-throated and agree it should be on the list. The photos of the females are probably debatable, since nobody is quite sure how to identify them (they are very similar to female Scintillants)! If you look very hard, somewhere on the web there is a poor picture of a male which I think must be a true Glow-throated (deep pinky red - not orange red - throat). I was on Cerro Santiago this year, for one day only and didn't have a sniff of either species! But many people have tried and failed to find the Glow-throated so we were not surprised.

cheers, alan
 
ALI123XYZ said:
Here are few more:

  • Honduran Emerald

  • Black-backed Thornbill

  • Ecuadorian Piedtail

  • Perija Metaltail

  • Glow-throated Hummingbird

  • Turquoise-throated Puffleg

Last one is possibly extinct species, but lets hope for the best as Blue-bearded Helmetcrest was rediscovered recently after 69 years!
Click to expand...

I doubt that the Ecuadorian Piedtail is that rare. It is certainly not that difficult to locate in forest at Wild Sumaco Lodge or at Bombuscaro (both Ecuador) and there is quite a bit of forest on the east slope at the relevant elevations.

cheers, alan
 
Coppery or Letitia's Thorntail (Discosura letitiae) is surely a candidate for the rarest of all, assuming it's still extant.

Some good discussion on Glow-throated Hummingbird is here: https://birdsofpassage.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/glow-throated-hummingbird-yellow-green-finch/ (a fantastic blog).

And as Alan says, Ecuadoria Piedtail is actually fairly common in the right habitat and elevational range (e.g Rio Bombuscaro in Podocarpus NP). Peruvian Piedtail might be rarer, but it is not too hard to find in the right places (e.g Yanachaga-Chemillen NP)
 
cajanuma said:
Coppery or Letitia's Thorntail (Discosura letitiae) is surely a candidate for the rarest of all, assuming it's still extant.
Click to expand...

If that is the case, then Bogota Sunangel should also be included because IUCN redlist does not give status of extinct to both of these species.
 
ALI123XYZ said:
If that is the case, then Bogota Sunangel should also be included because IUCN redlist does not give status of extinct to both of these species.
Click to expand...

I think it is worth drawing a distinction between birds with rare birds with "no known population" and rare birds with a known population. On very rare occasions - as in this week - birds move between the two categories! BLI & IUCN depend on formal criteria but IMO birders tend to have a better idea of what species are seeable in the real world.

cheers, alan
 
So I guess in that case:

Top 10 rarest with known populations
Top 10 rarest with unknown populations, possibly extinct.

If anyone finds glow-throated male photos I'd be interested since I am doing a hummingbird project which will need all references possible (or any references in this case!). Is there a good world hummingbird book around that would serve this purpose? (I think I've asked this before, let me search my old posts here).
 
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I would say that Honduran Emerald does not qualify as it is quite abundant within its tiny range. It is a very accessible species to see nowadays.

The spectacular Scissor-tailed Hummingbird has a similarly small range, being endemic to the Paria Peninsula in northeast Venezuela. It is supposed to be fairly common at the sites where it still occurs.

Although fairly widespread, some Amazonian hummingbirds such as Fiery-tailed Awlbill seem to be very low density and not straightforward to observe. They seem genuinely rare.
 
I would say the Bogota sunangel, the most cryptic hummingbird in the world, where it is not even certain whether it belongs to the genus Heliangelus. And the Turquoise-throated Puffleg which was last seen in 1976. Another candidate is the Marvellous spatuletail where the males are much rarer than the females.
 
Melanie said:
I would say the Bogota sunangel, the most cryptic hummingbird in the world, where it is not even certain whether it belongs to the genus Heliangelus. And the Turquoise-throated Puffleg which was last seen in 1976. Another candidate is the Marvellous spatuletail where the males are much rarer than the females.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with that statement.
 
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