Canivet’s Emerald

Open Bird Bucket List ↗

Quick Facts

  • Scientific Name: Cynanthus canivetii
  • Spanish Name: Esmeralda de Canivet
  • Family: Trochilidae
  • Known Nicknames: Canivet's Emerald Hummingbird, Fork-tailed Emerald
  • Average Length: 8–10 cm / 3.1–3.9 in
  • Average Weight: 2.5–4.5 g / 0.09–0.16 oz
  • Wingspan: 11–13 cm / 4.3–5.1 in
  • Key Feature: Iridescent green body and bright red bill with black tip
  • Primary Diet: Primarily Nectarivore (also small insects)
  • Range: Southern Mexico to northern Costa Rica
  • Habitat: Tropical dry forests, forest edges, gardens, and scrublands
  • Social Structure: Generally solitary (except during mating)
  • Nesting/Breeding: Small cup-shaped nest on tree branch
  • Conservation Status: Least Concern (LC)
  • Population Trend: Stable

Canivet’s Emerald (*Cynanthus canivetii*) is a dazzling, small hummingbird native to Central America, most commonly found along the Pacific slope from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. The male is a living jewel, with a brilliant, iridescent emerald-green body that glows in the sunlight, contrasted by a deep, forked blue-black tail and a striking, bright red bill tipped with black. Females are more subdued, with a pale gray underside and white-tipped outer tail feathers, but both sexes share a distinctive, slightly curved bill perfectly adapted for sipping nectar from tubular flowers. A unique characteristic is the male’s metallic, chattering song, which sounds like a rapid series of high-pitched clicks, often delivered from a high, exposed perch. This species is also notably aggressive for its size, fiercely defending its feeding territories from much larger hummingbirds, making it a charismatic and feisty gem of the tropical lowlands.

Fun Facts

Canivet’s Emerald has a bizarre courtship ritual where the male flies in tight, rapid loops around the female while his metallic throat feathers flash from green to fiery orange depending on the angle of the sun. Despite being barely three inches long, this hummingbird can fly backward, hover in place for over a minute, and even briefly enter a state of torpor—a mini-hibernation—on cold nights to conserve energy, dropping its heart rate from over 1,200 beats per minute to just 50. Its tongue is forked and fringed at the tip, acting like a tiny mop to lap up nectar at 13 licks per second, and it occasionally supplements its diet by stealing tiny insects from spider webs without getting stuck.

Habitats & Distribution

Canivet’s Emerald is found from south-central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and into northern Nicaragua. It inhabits a variety of semi-open and edge habitats, including tropical deciduous forests, thorn scrub, arid lowland scrub, second-growth woodlands, forest clearings, plantations, and gardens. The species is most common in dry, lowland regions from sea level up to around 1,500 meters, but it occasionally occurs in more humid areas along forest borders and river edges.

Behaviours & Reproduction

Canivet's Emerald is generally solitary outside of breeding, with males defending flower-rich feeding territories. Courtship involves the male performing a U-shaped dive display from a high perch, producing a mechanical whirring sound with his wings to attract a female. The female alone builds a small cup nest of plant down and spider webs, typically on a horizontal branch. She lays two white eggs and incubates them for about 15–16 days, then feeds the chicks regurgitated nectar and insects until they fledge at around 20–23 days. There is no pair bond; males mate with multiple females and provide no parental care.

Diet

Canivet's Emerald primarily feeds on nectar from a variety of flowering plants, including those in the Rubiaceae and Acanthaceae families, using its long, extendable tongue to lap up the sugary liquid. It also supplements its diet with small insects and spiders, which it catches by hawking (snatching from the air) or gleaning from foliage and spider webs, providing essential protein and nutrients. Interestingly, like many hummingbirds, it can enter a state of torpor on cold nights to conserve energy when food is scarce, and it has a specialized digestive system that processes sucrose very rapidly, allowing it to visit hundreds of flowers daily to meet its high metabolic demands.

Colors

Canivet’s Emerald is a small hummingbird with vivid, iridescent green plumage covering most of its body, including the head, back, and flanks. The male has a bright blue throat and a long, deeply forked black tail, while the female is duller with a white throat and breast, gray underparts, and white-tipped outer tail feathers. Both sexes have a straight, black-tipped red bill and a distinctive white spot behind the eye. Their shimmering green coloration provides excellent camouflage against the dappled light of tropical forests.

Distribution Map

Places linked to this species. A sighting is never guaranteed.