Blue-chinned Sapphire / Blauwkeelsaffierkolibrie

Blue-chinned Sapphire (Chlorestes notata)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Foek Chin Joe	© Eke van Batenburg	© Sean Dilrosun, birdguide
French Guiana © Michel Giraud-Audine	French Guiana © Michel Giraud-Audine	French Guiane © Roland Jantot

Blue-chinned Sapphire: a photo probably of an immature bird or else a female Blue-chinned Sapphire made by Foek Chin Joe near Zanderij airport in October 2006. Then one by Michel Giraud-Audine with flashlight at Sable d'or in French Guiana in January 2014 and one of again a young male near Sable d'or in French Guiana in August 2014.
It is a rather common hummingbird in the coastal region and the savanna. The bill is slightly curved and red below , black above. The male has a deep blue tail and of course a blue chin.
Dominiek Plouvier made a video of a Blue-chinned Sapphire

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Blue-chinned Sapphire © ;

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:	Chlorestes notata
Order:	Apodiformes
Family:	Trochilidae, 35 in Suriname
Dutch:	Blauwkeelsaffierkolibrie
English:	Blue-chinned Sapphire
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Colibri verdetico
Portugese (Brazil):	Beija-flor-de-garganta-azul
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Colibri à menton blue

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 103 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 1 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 103 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 1 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 ).