Chrysuronia is a genus of hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae, all of which are native to Central and South America.

Taxonomy

The genus Chrysuronia was introduced in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Bonaparte did not specify a type species but this was designated as the golden-tailed sapphire in 1855 by George Robert Gray. The genus name is a portmanteau of the specific names of two synonyms of the golden-tailed sapphire: Ornismya chrysura Lesson, R, 1832 and Ornismia oenone Lesson, 1832.

This genus formerly included only a single species, the golden-tailed sapphire. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genera Amazilia and Lepidopyga were polyphyletic. In the revised classification to create monophyletic genera, Chrysuronia was broadened to include species that had previous been placed in Amazilia, Hylocharis and Lepidopyga.

The genus now contains ten species:

Genus Chrysuronia – Bonaparte, 1850 – ten species
Common nameScientific name and subspeciesRangeSize and ecologyIUCN status and estimated population
Shining-green hummingbird Male FemaleChrysuronia goudoti (Bourcier, 1843) Four subspecies C. g. luminosa (Lawrence, 1862)C. g. goudoti (Bourcier, 1843)C. g. zuliae (Cory, 1918)C. g. phaeochroa (Todd, 1942)Colombia and VenezuelaSize: Habitat: Diet:LC
Golden-tailed sapphire Male FemaleChrysuronia oenone (Lesson, R, 1832)Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and VenezuelaSize: Habitat: Diet:LC
Versicolored emerald MaleChrysuronia versicolor (Vieillot, 1818)northern Bolivia, eastern Paraguay, far north-eastern Argentina, and eastern, southern and central BrazilSize: Habitat: Diet:EN
Mangrove hummingbirdChrysuronia boucardi (Mulsant, 1877)Costa Rica.Size: Habitat: Diet:LC
Sapphire-throated hummingbird MaleChrysuronia coeruleogularis (Gould, 1851) Three subspecies C. c. coeruleogularisC. c. coelinaC. c. conifisPanama, Colombia, and more recently Costa RicaSize: Habitat: Diet:LC
Sapphire-bellied hummingbirdChrysuronia lilliae (Stone, 1917)ColombiaSize: Habitat: Diet:EN
Humboldt's sapphireChrysuronia humboldtii (Bourcier & Mulsant, 1852)Colombia, Ecuador, and PanamaSize: Habitat: Diet:LC
Blue-headed sapphireChrysuronia grayi (Delattre & Bourcier, 1846)Colombia and Ecuador.Size: Habitat: Diet:LC
White-chested emeraldChrysuronia brevirostris (Lesson, R, 1829) Three subspecies C. b. brevirostrisC. b. chionopectusC. b. orienticolaBrazil, the Guianas, Trinidad, and Venezuela.Size: Habitat: Diet:LC
Plain-bellied emeraldChrysuronia leucogaster (Gmelin, JF, 1788) Two subspecies C. l. leucogaster (Gmelin, JF, 1788)C. l. bahiae (Hartert, E, 1899)Brazil, the Guianas, and Venezuela.Size: Habitat: Diet:LC