Blue-throated Sapphire

Open encyclopedia reference

The blue-throated goldentail (Chlorestes eliciae), also known as the blue-throated sapphire, is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. It is found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and heavily degraded former forest. The male blue-throated goldentail is a little bit larger than the female and display similar patterns but brighter colors on its plumage. This species can be distinguished by its straight, bright red bill with a black tip. The crown and upperparts of the male blue-throated goldentail are green, and more coppery or golden on the rectrices. The throat is glittering blue-violet to violet, the belly is cream-brown buff, and the sides of the breast and the flanks are streaked with green. The female's throat is rather violet blue, mixed with gray buff, and the belly is paler than the male's. The immature looks like the female adult as it has duller colors. This characteristic more pronounced in the female juvenile.

Wikipedia contributors, Blue-throated goldentail; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:53:17.337925+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Chlorestes eliciae (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1846)

Name authority

(Bourcier & Mulsant, 1846)

Common name

Blue-throated Sapphire

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Apodiformes

Family

Trochilidae

Genus

Chlorestes

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderApodiformes
10. familyTrochilidae
11. subfamilyTrochilinae
12. genusChlorestes Reichenbach, 1854
13. speciesChlorestes eliciae (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1846)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Chlorestes. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 256 records assigned to Trochilidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1150084 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:8KQHG. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.