Poco común y muy local en Venezuela; restringido a las estribaciones del Perijá. Mucho más fácil por el lado colombiano (Santa Marta / Magdalena), así que en Venezuela es un verdadero objetivo que requiere esfuerzo y acceso a la Sierra de Perijá para encontrar.
Marcas
Small (male ~8 cm, ~3.5 g) short straight black bill. Both sexes are diagnostic for the rich coppery-bronze gloss a the tail-coverts and wing-coverts. Male: shining golden-green crown, upperparts and underparts; coppery uppertail-coverts and slightly forked golden-coppery tail. Female: coppery-green above and on flanks, smoky-gray below; slightly forked greenish-coppery tail with a coppery-purple subterminal band and pale tips on the outer feathers.
Hábitat
Semi-open and open landscapes: dry a humid scrub, forest edge, hedgerows and cultivated/second-growth areas, mostly 500–1,700 m (recorded sea level a ~2,600 m). Favors flowering shrubs and edge habitat rather than forest interior.
Comportamiento
Típica esmeralda pequeña — rápida, baja, trampillas flores arbustos y vegetación de borde; se posa conspicuamente en ramitas desnudas entre los brotes de alimentación; defiende ricos parches florales.
Voz
High, thin, dry tsik/tsi notes and a light chittering twitter typical de Chlorostilbon emeralds; not a strong songster. Listen to reference cuts on Xeno-canto and Macaulay Library under the search term "Coppery Emerald" or "Chlorostilbon russatus".
Other small green hummingbirds en el Perijá edge (e.g. Steely-vented / Blue-tailed-type Saucerottia) — separate by the unique coppery-bronze tail- and wing-covert gloss and the small size + straight black bill
Las hembras podrían sugerir una pequeña amadera u otra esmeralda: las partes inferiores de la hembra, cobrizas y gris-humeante, son el punto de inflexión.
Nota de orientación
This is an access bird, not a hard-ID bird. Stake out a blooming hedgerow or Inga/flowering shrub patch at the right elevation on the Perijá edge and let the bird come a a favored perch — point clients at the coppery tail gloss en good light, which is the single best teachable field mark.
