Nice series of photos. However, I've seen many white-chinned sapphire in the wild and neither this nor the other one is that species. For example, it's missing the contrasting blue-black tail, the coppery rump that contrasts with a green back, the border between the dark face and the pale throat is too clear and its overall shape (e.g. beak) is wrong. Many photos of both sexes and all ages here (e.g., female, female, female). If they're calling it white-chinned sapphire they're wrong. From this photo alone it looks like a ruby-topaz, but there are several species that can look rather similar to this. Do you know how long they've had it? I don't remember seeing it there but some time since my last visit.
Nice series of photos. However, I've seen many white-chinned sapphire in the wild and neither this nor the other one is that species. For example, it's missing the contrasting blue-black tail, the coppery rump that contrasts with a green back, the border between the dark face and the pale throat is too clear and its overall shape (e.g. beak) is wrong. Many photos of both sexes and all ages here (e.g., female, female, female). If they're calling it white-chinned sapphire they're wrong. From this photo alone it looks like a ruby-topaz, but there are several species that can look rather similar to this. Do you know how long they've had it? I don't remember seeing it there but some time since my last visit.
Thank you condor. As lintworm sad, the birds where confiscated and brought to avifauna about a month ago. They recieved 2 species, fork-tailed woodnymph and this one. It could be that I just mislabbeled them?! I lack the knowledge on hummingbirds unfortunately. I will post some more photo's from both species, hopefully that will help, there is already an other photo of this specimen, but I will add some more
Thanks for the info on their origin. Seeing the recently uploaded photos, they certainly did receive real white-chinned sapphire (2 photos of males: #1 and #2). In general, female hummingbirds are harder to identify than males, but the female white-chinned sapphire has a few distinctive features (mentioned in my last post) that makes its identification relatively easy. As you suggested, this is likely a case of mislabelling: Young and worn female fork-tailed woodnymphs can look like this. The appearance of the underside of the tail on this and this photo is also good for the woodnymph (rather than the ruby-topaz).
With all their interesting and rarely kept species, I clearly need to revisit the park again soon!
