Chaetocercus Explained

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.^{[1] [2]} The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek words khaitē, meaning "hair" and kerkos, meaning "tail".^[3]

The genus contains six species:^[4]

All these species, except for the rufous-shafted woodstar, were formerly placed in the genus Acestrura.^[5] 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".^[6]

Notes and References

1. Book: Gray, George Robert . George Robert Gray . 1855 . Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds Contained in the British Museum . London . British Museum . 22 .
2. Book: Peters . James Lee . James L. Peters . 1945 . Check-List of Birds of the World . 5 . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 140 .
3. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 98 .
4. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . August 2022 . Hummingbirds . IOC World Bird List Version 12.2 . International Ornithologists' Union . 16 September 2022 .
5. Book: Peters . James Lee . James L. Peters . 1945 . Check-List of Birds of the World . 5 . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 139 .
6. Book: Schuchmann, K.L. . 1999 . Genus Chaetocercus . del Hoyo . J. . Elliott . A. . Sargatal . J. . Handbook of the Birds of the World . 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds . Barcelona, Spain . Lynx Edicions . 978-84-87334-25-2 . 677 . https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0005unse/page/677/mode/1up . registration .