New Photos Show One of the World’s Rarest Hummingbirds

New photos and videos show one of the rarest birds in the world, offering a new look at the hummingbird.

The Santa Marta Sabrewing was only rediscovered as recently as 2022. Now, a new video shows it in beautiful detail. In the video, the hummingbird can be seen singing with its pearlescent shining blue and green feathers on display. In one part, the bird struts its stuff more, fanning its wings and tail feathers out, mimicking a beta fish among the trees.

Before 2022, it was only photographed in 2010, and before that, it had been a long 64 years that the Santa Marta Sabrewing was lost to science, the American Bird Conservancy explains in a release.

The rediscovery led to finding new locations where the hummingbird can be seen, as well as opening the door for new research on the Santa Marta Sabrewing over 16 consecutive months, providing “findings [that] are a beacon of hope in an unknown territory,” the American Bird Conservancy says.

The study has provided new information about the elusive hummingbird’s feeding, singing, and courtship behaviors, which is crucial information for an animal listed as critically endangered.

“After two years of researching the Santa Marta Sabrewing, we have finally made our main results public,” Carlos Esteban Lara, a professor at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, says. “Unveiling the Santa Marta Sabrewing’s story was not only possible through a joint effort between academia, local, and international organizations, but also by collaboration with the local Indigenous communities who coexist with the species. We are grateful for their help as our partnership and research continue to expand, to help implement conservation actions that benefit both the local people and the birds.”

Notably, the research revealed that the Santa Marta Sabrewing individual may not be one making its migration, instead maintaining year-round territories within a narrow range. Information like this could help researchers keep tabs on the bird in the future.

“When we first highlighted the Santa Marta Sabrewing as one of the top 10 lost birds in 2021, the species was a complete enigma,” John C. Mittermeier, coauthor and Director of the Search for Lost Birds at the American Bird Conservancy explains. “Not only could no one find the sabrewing, but no one really even knew why it had become lost. Now it feels like we have cracked the code behind this amazing species and understand, for the first time, something about it and how it managed to disappear from science for most of the past hundred years. From a Lost Birds perspective, this is just about the most exciting result you can hope for!”

Image credits: Courtesy of American Bird Conservancy