Northern giant hummingbird

Northern giant hummingbird
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Strisores
Order: Apodiformes
Family: Trochilidae
Genus: Patagona
Species:
P. peruviana
Binomial name
Patagona peruviana
Boucard, 1893[1]
Synonyms[2][3]
  • Patagona gigas peruviana
    (Boucard, 1893)
  • Patagona boliviana
    Boucard, 1893
  • Patagona chaski
    Williamson et al., 2024

The northern giant hummingbird (Patagona peruviana) is the largest species of hummingbird and one of two species of the genus Patagona.[2]

It and the sympatric southern giant hummingbird (P. gigas) were once considered the same species, i.e., the giant hummingbird, though some researchers have already classified them as different species or subspecies in the past.[1][2] Genomic analysis supports the separation of the two species which shows that they diverged between 2.1 and 3.4 million years ago, in the late Pliocene.[4] Williamson and colleagues attributed the binomial name Patagona chaski to the northern giant hummingbird in 2024,[4] but this taxon was already described as Patagona peruviana by Boucard in 1893, so P. chaski is a junior synonym of P. peruviana.[1][2]

A single F1 male hybrid between the two species has been recorded in a study that collected a sample of 101 individuals, suggesting that hybridization occurs regularly between the species. However, high genome-wide FST between the two species shows that introgression and backcrossing of first generation hybrids occurs very rarely in nature, such that there is no gene flow occurring between the two species.[4]

  1. ^ a b c Boucard, A. (1893). Genera of Humming Birds (PDF). London: Pardy & Son. pp. 60–61. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.8668.
  2. ^ a b c d Juan I. Areta; Matthew R. Halley; Guy M. Kirwan; Heraldo V. Norambuena; Niels K. Krabbe; Vítor Q. Piacentini (2024). "The world's largest hummingbird was described 131 years ago". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 144 (3): 328–332. doi:10.25226/bboc.v144i3.2024.a14.
  3. ^ Zimmer, J.T. (December 8, 1952). "Studies of Peruvian birds. No. 62, The hummingbird genera Patagona, Sappho, Polyonymus, Ramphomicron, Metallura, Chalcostigma, Taphrolesbia, and Aglaiocercus". American Museum Novitates (1595): 1–29.
  4. ^ a b c Williamson, Jessie L.; Gyllenhaal, Ethan F.; Bauernfeind, Selina M.; Bautista, Emil; Baumann, Matthew J.; Gadek, Chauncey R.; Marra, Peter P.; Ricote, Natalia; Valqui, Thomas; Bozinovic, Francisco; Singh, Nadia D.; Witt, Christopher C. (2024-05-21). "Extreme elevational migration spurred cryptic speciation in giant hummingbirds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (21): e2313599121. Bibcode:2024PNAS..12113599W. doi:10.1073/pnas.2313599121. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 11126955. PMID 38739790.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC embargo expired (link)