Green-tailed Emerald

The male green-tailed emerald is 7.5 to 8.5 cm (3.0 to 3.3 in) long and females 6.5 to 7.5 cm (2.6 to 3.0 in). The species weighs between 3 and 4 g (0.11 and 0.14 oz). Both sexes have a short, straight, black bill. The male's forehead and crown are shining dark green, its upperparts bronzy green, its tail glittering bronze-green, and its underparts grass green. The female's upperparts are like the male's. It has a white line behind the eye. Its underparts are pale grayish and the undertail coverts are dark gray. Its central tail feathers are green and the rest have green bases with black near the end and grayish tips. Immature birds resemble the female with buffy fringes on the feathers of the head.

The green-tailed emerald is endemic to northern Venezuela, from Falcón south to Lara and Sucre and east to Monagas. It inhabits the semi-open edges of a variety of forest types including semi-humid rainforest, cloudforest, secondary forest, plantations, and sometimes dry forest. In elevation it ranges between 700 and 1,800 m (2,300 and 5,900 ft).

The green-tailed emerald uses a variety of foraging strategies to feed on nectar. It uses trap-lining at low-quality sources and "steals" nectar from richer sources in other hummingbird's territories. Males sometimes defend nectar-rich feeding territories. The species forages fairly low in the vegetation, usually between 1 and 6 m (3 and 20 ft) above the ground, and seeks nectar at a variety of flowering plants and shrubs. In addition to nectar, it also feeds on small insects captured by hawking from a perch.