White-booted racket-tail

White-booted racket-tail
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Apodiformes
Family:Trochilidae
Genus:Ocreatus
Species: O. underwoodii
Binomial name
Ocreatus underwoodii
(Lesson, 1832)

The white-booted racket-tail (Ocreatus underwoodii) is a species of hummingbird. It is found in the Andean cordillera of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. A population also occurs on the Venezuelan coast. Long considered the only species in the monotypic genus Ocreatus,[2] the bird is now sometimes split into three species, the white-booted racket-tail, the Peruvian racket-tail, and the rufous-booted racket-tail. Some taxonomists, such as the American Ornithological Society, continue to lump all the species together, calling it the booted racket-tail.

Description

The upperparts are a golden green colour and the rump has a white bar. The throat and breast are a brilliant emerald green. The legs are feathered down to the feet with horny white short feathers. The tail is brownish black and deeply forked. The tail feathers on either side increase in length from the centre and the outermost ones are exceptionally long and have bare shafts tipped by oval plumes, which gives the species its common name.[3]

References

  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Ocreatus underwoodii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. Hilty, S. L. Birds of Venezuela, Ed. 2. Princeton University Press, 2002. pg. 429.
  3. Jardine, Sir William (1833). The Naturalist's Library. Ornithology: Humming-Birds. p. 110.



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