Glittering-throated Emerald / Franje-amazilia

Glittering-throated Emerald (Amazilia fimbriata)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Suzette Eeltink	© Foek Chin Joe	© Leo Olmtak
© Dominiek Plouvier	© Jan Hein Ribot	© Jan Hein Ribot
© Foek Chin Joe	© K.D. Dijkstra	© Ricardo van Dijk
© John S. Dunning	© Jean-Louis Rousselle	© Barbara Olmtak
© Hans Majong	© Hans Majong	© Raoul Ribot
© Rutger Lem	©	© Alexander Elias
French Guiana © Michel Giraud-Audine

The Glittering-throated Amazilia is the hummingbird that is most often seen in Suriname: It is numerous in and near Paramaribo. The male is easily recognised by the small white stripe on his breast and by the white near its tiny feet. The rest of the body is glimmering green (that is to say, with the right illumination, not on all these photographs). The bill is slightly curved, black, with some red at the underside (some birds have more red on their bill). A recording of its sound was made by Otte Ottema.
The nest is made of plantmaterial and cobweb and tiny (about 45 mm Ø), the eggs are even more so: about 13 x 8.5 mm and they weigh half a gram. The female, that weighs about 5 gram, takes care of the eggs and it takes about 15 days till they hatch. Then the young stay in their nest for another 20 days (Haverschmidt). They breed in all months.
Photos of a Glittering-throated Amazilia by Suzette Eeltink, at Hotel de Plantage in April 2008 and the nest by Foek Chin Joe (Suriname, July 2006). The third with a really glittering throat, by Leo Olmatak in his garden in 2009. Two pictures in the garden of the Li Fo Sjoe family in Nieuw Nickerie, Suriname, 2001 by Jan Hein Ribot and one bird eating a spider from a wall at Weg naar Zee in 2006. Two females were photographed by Foek Chin Joe in Paramaribo 2004 and by K.D. Dijkstra in 2007. Two males by Ricardo van Dijk in February 2013 and in the seventies in Suriname by John S. Dunning. Jean-Louis Rousselle saw one in Commewijne in March 2014. Michel Giraud-Audine made the picture of a nest in France Guiana near Carapa in March 2008. It is very similar to the nest on the second picture, same leaves it seems.
A video in slow motion was made by Ribot in a garden in Lelydorp.

Birdsounds (click on them to listen)
Sound recording of a Glittering-throated Emerald © Otte Ottema, bird guide

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Glittering-throated Emerald © ;

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Amazilia fimbriata
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Trochilidae, 35 in Suriname
Dutch:	Franje-amazilia
English:	Glittering-throated Emerald
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Kortji, Kortjie, Kownubrie
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Diamante gargantiverde
Portugese (Brazil):	Beija-flor-de garganta-verde
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Ariane de Linné

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 585 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 136 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 585 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 136 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).