Riccordia elegans (Gould, 1860:307)
Gould's emerald, Elegant emerald, Caribbean emerald
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Erythronota elegans Gould, 1860:307 (original combination); Chlorostilbon bracei elegans (Gould, 1860:307); Chlorostilbon elegans (Gould, 1860:307)
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 1860 (Kittelberger et al., 2024)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
Distribution & Habitat
Probably comes from the Caribbean, but the exact area is not known.
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Only known from the holotype.
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Gould, John. (1860). Descriptions of twenty-two new species of Humming-birds. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 28: 304-312.
Other references:
Beer, John. (2015). By and By. Poetry 207(2): 125-127. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44015857
BirdLife International. (2012). Chlorostilbon elegans. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 23 August 2013.
BirdLife International. 2016. Chlorostilbon elegans. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22728709A94994346. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22728709A94994346.en. Accessed on 30 June 2022.
Brooks, T. 2000. Extinct species. In: BirdLife International (ed.), Threatened Birds of the World, pp. 701-708. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, U.K.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Faurby, Søren, Matthews, Tom J., Triantis, Kostas A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2026). Quantifying the unrecorded loss of avian phylogenetic diversity. Ecography 2026: e08267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08267
Kittelberger, Kyle D., Tanner, Colby J., Buxton, Amy N., Prewett, Amira and Şekercioğlu, Çağan Hakkı. (2024). Correlates of avian extinction timing around the world since 1500 CE. Avian Research 15: 100213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avrs.2024.100213 [Supplementary data (List of 216 taxa)]
Matthews, Thomas J., Triantis, Kostas A., Wayman, Joseph P., Martin, Thomas E., Hume, Julian P., Cardoso, Pedro, Faurby, Søren, Mendenhall, Chase D., Dufour, Paul, Rigal, François, Cooke, Rob, Whittaker, Robert J., Pigot, Alex L., Thébaud, Christophe, Jørgensen, Maria Wagner, Benavides, Eva, Soares, Filipa C., Ulrich, Werner, Kubota, Yasuhiro, Sadler, Jon P., Tobias, Joseph A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2024). The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions. Science 386(6717): 55-60. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk7898 [Supplementary Materials; Dryad dataset; Zenodo codeset]
Matthews, Thomas J., Wayman, Joseph P., Cardoso, Pedro, Sayol, Ferran, Hume, Julian P., Ulrich, Werner, Tobias, Joseph A., Soares, Filipa C., Thébaud, Christophe, Martin, Thomas E. and Triantis, Kostas A. (2022). Threatened and extinct island endemic birds of the world: Distribution, threats and functional diversity. Journal of Biogeography 49(11): 1920-1940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14474 [Appendix S1 (.docx); Appendix S2 (.pdf)]
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Weller, A. A. (1999). On types of trochilids in The Natural History Museum, Tring II. Re-evaluation of Erythronota (?) elegans Gould 1860: a presumed extinct species of the genus Chlorostilbon. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 119(3): 197-202.