Chaetocercus

Chaetocercus
Female gorgeted woodstar (Chaetocercus heliodor)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Apodiformes
Family: Trochilidae
Tribe: Mellisugini
Genus: Chaetocercus
G.R. Gray, 1855
Type species
Ornismya jourdanii (rufous-shafted woodstar)
Bourcier, 1839
Synonyms

Chaetocercus is a genus of hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae.

Taxonomy

The genus Chaetocercus was introduced in 1855 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray with the rufous-shafted woodstar as the type species. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek words khaitē, meaning "hair" and kerkos, meaning "tail".

The species, except for the rufous-shafted woodstar, were formerly placed in the genus Acestrura. In 1999 Karl-Ludwig Schuchmann remarked in the Handbook of the Birds of the World that for the species placed in Acestrura: "...no evidence in external morphology justifies treatment in a genus separate from C. jourdanii". Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the genus Chaetocercus is sister to the slender-tailed woodstar that is placed in its own genus Microstilbon.

The genus contains six species:

MaleFemaleCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
White-bellied woodstarChaetocercus mulsant
Little woodstarChaetocercus bombus
Gorgeted woodstarChaetocercus heliodor
Santa Marta woodstarChaetocercus astreans
Esmeraldas woodstarChaetocercus berlepschi
Rufous-shafted woodstarChaetocercus jourdanii

References

  1. ↑ Gray, George Robert (1855). Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds Contained in the British Museum. London: British Museum. p. 22.
  2. ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 140.
  3. ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  4. ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 139.
  5. ↑ Schuchmann, K.L. (1999). "Genus Chaetocercus". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. p. 677. ISBN 978-84-87334-25-2.
  6. ↑ McGuire, J.; Witt, C.; Remsen, J.V.; Corl, A.; Rabosky, D.; Altshuler, D.; Dudley, R. (2014). "Molecular phylogenetics and the diversification of hummingbirds". Current Biology. 24 (8): 910–916. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.016.
  7. ↑ Licona-Vera, Yuyini; Ornelas, Juan Francisco (2017). "The conquering of North America: dated phylogenetic and biogeographic inference of migratory behavior in bee hummingbirds". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17 (1): 126. Bibcode:2017BMCEE..17..126L. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0980-5. PMC 5460336.
  8. ↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 20 April 2026.