Order
Caprimulgiformes
Family
Trochilidae
Genus
Coeligena
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Golden-bellied Starfrontlet Coeligena bonapartei

Catalina Palacios
Version: 1.0 — Published January 9, 2015

Systematics

Geographic Variation

Three subspecies recognized; these three taxa have been arranged in anywhere from one to three species (see below):

eos, described as Helianthea Eos Gould 1848; type locality "highlands of New Grenada and Venezuela", restricted to "the higher elevations of the Sierra de Mérida, Venezuela" by Wetmore and Phelps (1952)

Occurs in the Andes of Venezuela.

Differs from nominate bonapartei by cinnamon secondaries (a trait also shared by consita); rectrices basally cinnamon, tipped with green (rather than entirely bronzy green); coppery brown (rather than green) sheen on upper back and on belly; violet blue (rather than royal blue) patch on throat; golden green (rather than green) breast and sides to the neck (Züchner 1999a).

consita, described as Coeligena bonapartei consita Wetmore and Phelps 1952; type locality "southeastern base of Cerro Tetarí, at 2900 meters elevation, Sierra de Perijá, Zulia, Venezuela"

Most similar to eos, but the amount of cinnamon on the secondaries is reduced; also, the rectrices are entirely green (as in nominate bonapartei).

bonapartei, described as Ornismia bonarpartei [sic] Boissoneau 1840; type locality Bogotá, Colombia

Eastern Andes of Colombia, from southern Boyacá to Bogotá.

See Detailed Description.

In older literature, eos and bonapartei each were recognized as separate species (e.g. Peters 1945). As noted by Wetmore and Phelps (1952), consita shares characteristics of both eos and bonapartei, and so many authors have classified all three as a single species with three subspecies (e.g. Wetmore and Phelps 1952, Meyer de Schauensee 1966, Dickinson and Remsen 2013, Remsen et al. 2015). Alternatively, Schuchmann (1999) recognized two species, a monotypic Coeligena eos (Golden Starfrontlet) and a polytypic Coeligena bonapartei (including consita). More recently, del Hoyo and Collar (2014) recognized each of these three taxa as a species (with Coeligena consita taking the English name Perija Starfrontlet).

Subspecies


EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Coeligena bonapartei consita


EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Coeligena bonapartei bonapartei


EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Coeligena bonapartei eos

Related Species

Phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data, from both mitochondrial and nuclear genes, reveals that hummingbirds (Trochilidae) constitute nine major clades, comprising the hermits, mangos, Patagona, topazes, coquettes, brilliants, mountain-gems, bees, and emeralds (McGuire et al. 2007, 2009, 2014). Coeligena belongs to the clade of brilliants, which is predominated by Andean genera; other members of the brilliants clade are Haplophaedia, Eriocnemis, Loddigesia, Lafresnaya, Aglaeactis, Pterophanes, Ensifera, Boissonneaua, Urosticte, Ocreatus, UrochroaClytolaema, and Heliodoxa (McGuire et al. 2009, 2014). Coeligena may be sister to a large clade that consists of Pterophanes, Ensifera, Boissonneaua, Urosticte, Ocreatus, Urochroa, Heliodoxa, Clytolaema, and Heliodoxa.

Within Coeligenabonapartei (as represented by nominate bonapartei) and Coeligena helianthea (Blue-throated Starfrontlet) form a single clade closely related to Coeligena lutetiae (Buff-winged Starfrontlet) and Coeligena orina (Dusky Starfrontlet) (Parra et al. 2009, McGuire et al. 2014).

Recommended Citation

Palacios, C. (2015). Golden-bellied Starfrontlet (Coeligena bonapartei), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.gobsta1.01