Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza, Leti López,
Silvia Centrón and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.
GILDED SAPPHIRE Hylocharis chrysura
One of the two common urban hummingbirds in Paraguay, the Gilded looks like he has had his tail dipped in molten bronze! In fact his whole plumage is slightly bronzy if you catch it at the right angle, though at the wrong angle he will tend to look drab and somewhat uninteresting. There is nothing more pleasant than passing an afternoon watching the Gilded and other hummingbirds coming to a flowering bush like thirsty travellers stopping at an inn. They will even bless you with the occasional bar fight - despite their small size hummingbirds are notoriously pugnacious!
FIGURE 1 - Adult/Juvenile?, Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith November 2006).
FIGURE 2 - Same individual ventral view (Paul Smith November 2006).
FIGURE 3 - Adult?, Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith December).
FIGURE 4 - Same individual upperwing (Paul Smith December).
FIGURE 5 - Juvenile? preening, Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith November 2006).
FIGURE 6 - Same individual (Paul Smith November 2006).
FIGURE 7 - Adult male? Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith January 2007).
FIGURE 8 - Adult dorsal view Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith May 2007).
VIDEO 1 (top) - Same individual as Fig 6 (Paul Smith November 2006).
VIDEO 2 (bottom) - Adult foraging, Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith December).

The variable amount of black on the bill tip of this species is shown by the two extremes of Fig 6 and Fig 7. It is likely related to age (or maybe sex??) with juvenile birds showing more black, though we are yet to confirm this, hence the question marks!!.
FIGURE 1

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2

FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3

FIGURE 3
FIGURE 4

FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5

FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6

FIGURE 6
FIGURE 7

FIGURE 7
FIGURE 8

FIGURE 8

Hylocharis chrysura
1 Territorial song recorded Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith April 2007).
2 Territorial song with "wenk" calls recorded Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith April 2007).
3 Antagonistic calls in aggressive interaction recorded Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith April 2007).
4 Foraging calls recorded Encarnación, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith April 2007).
5 Song recorded Aguara-Ñu, Mbaracayú Biosphere Reserve, Departamento Canindeyú (Juan Mazar Barnett August 1997).

Click the links to hear the calls. Longer versions of this call can be downloaded from the Paraguay page of our partner website Xeno-Canto - the largest collection of freely downloadable Neotropical bird calls available online.