Discosura | |
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Green thorntail, Discosura conversii | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Clade: | Strisores |
Order: | Apodiformes |
Family: | Trochilidae |
Tribe: | Lesbiini |
Genus: | Discosura Bonaparte, 1850 |
Type species | |
Trochilus longicaudus (racket-tailed coquette) Gmelin, JF, 1788
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Species | |
5, see text |
Discosura is a genus of South and Central American hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae. The thorntails are sometimes placed in the genus Popelairia (Reichenbach, 1854), leaving Discosura for the racket-tailed coquette. On the contrary, some have argued for merging this genus into Lophornis, which they overall resemble, except for the highly modified tail-feathers of the males.
The genus Discosura was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.[1] Bonaparte did not specify a type species but this was designated as the racket-tailed coquette by George Robert Gray in 1855.[2][3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek diskos meaning "plate" with oura meaning "tail".[4]
The genus contains five species.[5]
Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
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Wire-crested thorntail | Discosura popelairii | Colombia, Ecuador and Peru |
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Black-bellied thorntail | Discosura langsdorffi | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. |
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Letitia's thorntail | Discosura letitiae | Probably Bolivia (only known from two old specimens of uncertain origin) |
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Green thorntail | Discosura conversii | Costa Rica to Ecuador |
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Racket-tailed coquette | Discosura longicaudus | Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and southern Venezuela |