Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)

Blue-chinned Sapphire (Chlorostilbon notatus) - HBW 5, p. 572

French: Colibri à menton bleu German: Blaukinn-Smaragdkolibri Spanish: Esmeralda Gorgiazul
Other common names: Audebert’s Hummingbird

Taxonomy: Trochilus notatus Reich, 1793, Cayenne.
Formerly placed in monospecific genus Chlorestes, but morphology and bioacoustics indicate that merging into Chlorostilbon is more appropriate. Author and year of scientific description of species have consistently been misquoted. Racial variation complex and possibly not constant; intermediate populations exist. Birds of Brazil S of Amazon formerly awarded race cyanogenys. Two highly doubtful forms known only from trade skins (one and two respectively) from Bahia: “C. subcaeruleus” is probably a hyperchromatic aberration of present species; “C. hypocyaneus” may be a mutant of present species, or hybrid of present species with Hylocharis cyanus, or possibly even a valid species. Also, “Eucephala scapulata”, known from single specimen from French Guiana, is probably a hybrid of present species with Thalurania furcata. Three subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

notatus (Reich, 1793) - NE Colombia through N & E Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Guianas to E Brazil (Pará to Bahia).
puruensis Riley, 1913 - NW Brazil (N of Amazon, E to mouths of R Trombetas and R Negro) to SE Colombia and NE Peru (upper R Ucayali).
obsoletus (Zimmer, 1950) - NE Peru on lower R Ucayali near mouth of R Napo, and W probably to mouth of R Huallaga.