Another small set of Costa Rican birds for ID check (1 Viewer)

[DeanLeverett]

Hi folks
Another set of 3 birds from Costa Rica for ID check pls..... All pics taken from Monteverde in April 2022.

9068/9069 - Black-bellied Hummingbird? [nothing else seems to match, but not really correct location for this species?]
9321 - Lineated Foliage-gleaner?
9425 - Black-capped Flycatcher?

Many thanks!

 

[JWN Andrewes]

The furnariid is a Streak-breasted Treehunter

 

[DeanLeverett]

The furnariid is a Streak-breasted Treehunter

Great - thanks. Good to get that one sorted!

 

[THE_FERN]

Not black-capped which photos show is very different. Sorry but not sure what: Empid sp.

 

[Maffong]

The hummingbird is a weird Lesser Violetear, the empid looks like a backlit Yellowish Flycatcher to me

 

[DeanLeverett]

The hummingbird is a weird Lesser Violetear, the empid looks like a backlit Yellowish Flycatcher to me

Thank you. Lesser Violetear not listed in my CR field guide for some reason - but that would make much sense geographically. Flycatcher looks a good shout too.

 

[Maffong]

Lesser Violetear used to be called Green Violetear

 

[DeanLeverett]

Lesser Violetear used to be called Green Violetear

Wikipedia shows them as different species?

 

[THE_FERN]

The hummingbird is a weird Lesser Violetear, the empid looks like a backlit Yellowish Flycatcher to me

Yellowish looks reasonable. I excluded it because of the grey appearance but it does have the characteristic white behind the eye. So perhaps it is just lighting

 

[THE_FERN]

Wikipedia shows them as different species?

It's a split...

 

[Maffong]

Wikipedia shows them as different species?

Well, have a look at Wikipedia again. There it's all explained.
Green Violetear

 

[DeanLeverett]

Well, have a look at Wikipedia again. There it's all explained.
Green Violetear

So is the bird Lesser or Mexican?

 

[Maffong]

Honestly, I'm becoming a little disgruntled here. The answer was already given to you, a link to understand it was provided. You have a field guide, you have the internet, you even already got the answer above and yet you can't be bothered to find out on your own. I'm happy to help, I'm not here to babysit

 

[DeanLeverett]

Honestly, I'm becoming a little disgruntled here. The answer was already given to you, a link to understand it was provided. You have a field guide, you have the internet, you even already got the answer above and yet you can't be bothered to find out on your own. I'm happy to help, I'm not here to babysit

What you actually provided was a bird species ID that wasn't included in the field guide. I then checked the internet and as highlighted by you and another, this indicated a split. But the split species with the same latin name as Green Violetear (Colibri thalassinus) is not Lesser Violetear, but Mexican Violetear. So I am simply asking you to confirm that you meant Lesser and not Mexican. If it was possible to tell which it was from the internet/ field guide, then I wouldn't be asking, would I? I have actually spent a very long time trying my best to identify these birds (admittedly badly in these cases). I'm just asking for a little help to finalise these few IDs. I have nothing but absolute respect for you and everyone on this forum who has helped/ is helping me with this few odd IDs (from a total photoset of over 10K pics, so not too many really) - so I'm sorry if I have 'disgruntled' you.

 

[Maffong]

I think, I now understand that the problem was that you're not experienced with how splits work, so sorry for becoming angry at you. It seemed to me that you were simply too lazy to do any research on your own. Nevertheless, the answer can be found within the first sentence of Wikipedia's Lesser Violetear page.

"The lesser violetear (Colibri cyanotus), also known as the mountain violet-ear, is a medium-sized, metallic green hummingbird species commonly found in forested areas from Costa Rica to northern South America. This species and the Mexican violetear were formerly considered as conspecific and named the 'green violetear'."

There used to be a species called Green Violetear. It's original description was based on a specimen that was given the scientific name Colibri thalassinus. Hence this species is included in your (not entirely up to date) field guide. Further research showed that the Green Violetear actually includes two species. Both had their English names changed in order to avoid confusion, but in accordance with scientific naming conventions the population that belonged to the aforementioned specimen retained the name C. thalassinus. Meanwhile the other population is gets assigned a new name (and new voucher specimen) which in this case is C. cyanotus.
I hope it's clear to you now.

 

[DeanLeverett]

I think, I now understand that the problem was that you're not experienced with how splits work, so sorry for becoming angry at you. It seemed to me that you were simply too lazy to do any research on your own. Nevertheless, the answer can be found within the first sentence of Wikipedia's Lesser Violetear page.

"The lesser violetear (Colibri cyanotus), also known as the mountain violet-ear, is a medium-sized, metallic green hummingbird species commonly found in forested areas from Costa Rica to northern South America. This species and the Mexican violetear were formerly considered as conspecific and named the 'green violetear'."

There used to be a species called Green Violetear. It's original description was based on a specimen that was given the scientific name Colibri thalassinus. Hence this species is included in your (not entirely up to date) field guide. Further research showed that the Green Violetear actually includes two species. Both had their English names changed in order to avoid confusion, but in accordance with scientific naming conventions the population that belonged to the aforementioned specimen retained the name C. thalassinus. Meanwhile the other population is gets assigned a new name (and new voucher specimen) which in this case is C. cyanotus.
I hope it's clear to you now.

Very clear. Thank you for explaining so comprehensively. And of course no problem. (No doubt they'll all be lumped back together at some point anyway ). Cheers!

 

[DeanLeverett]

I think, I now understand that the problem was that you're not experienced with how splits work, so sorry for becoming angry at you. It seemed to me that you were simply too lazy to do any research on your own. Nevertheless, the answer can be found within the first sentence of Wikipedia's Lesser Violetear page.

"The lesser violetear (Colibri cyanotus), also known as the mountain violet-ear, is a medium-sized, metallic green hummingbird species commonly found in forested areas from Costa Rica to northern South America. This species and the Mexican violetear were formerly considered as conspecific and named the 'green violetear'."

There used to be a species called Green Violetear. It's original description was based on a specimen that was given the scientific name Colibri thalassinus. Hence this species is included in your (not entirely up to date) field guide. Further research showed that the Green Violetear actually includes two species. Both had their English names changed in order to avoid confusion, but in accordance with scientific naming conventions the population that belonged to the aforementioned specimen retained the name C. thalassinus. Meanwhile the other population is gets assigned a new name (and new voucher specimen) which in this case is C. cyanotus.
I hope it's clear to you now.

And the nice thing is that I've actually picked a new species in all of this! (I already had C.thalassinus and Black-bellied Hummingbird)