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Buff-tailed sicklebill

species of bird

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 5, 2025
Entity authorityQ1261602 ↗
Source-derived summary

Epimachus albertisi, a bird-of-paradise from New Guinea, is also sometimes called "buff-tailed sicklebill".

The buff-tailed sicklebill (Eutoxeres condamini) is a species of hermit hummingbird from the lower Andes and adjacent west Amazonian lowlands from southern Colombia and northern Ecuador to Peru and Bolivia.

Description

With a total length of 5–6 in (13–15 cm) and weighing 0.28–0.44 oz (7.9–12.5 g), it is a relatively large hummingbird. Males and females are virtually identical, differing only in size (especially wing measurements), with the females being some 20% smaller.

Its upperparts are iridescent dull greenish, while the underparts are whitish, densely streaked with dusky. The neck-side has a relatively faint blue patch. The tips of the rectrices (tail feathers) are white, and there is a naked stripe on top of the head (but this is usually concealed). The most conspicuous features, however, are those the common name refers to: the bill is strongly decurved, and the outer three rectrices on each side are deep buff, best visible from below.

Immature birds have light-tipped remiges (pinions), hardly any blue on the neck, and lack the naked crown stripe. Hatchlings have black skin and grey down.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Buff-tailed sicklebill” is species of bird. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Buff-tailed, sicklebill and species, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA sound reference starting point where classification, measurement and the date of the underlying evidence remain visible. The current 190-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Buff-tailed, sicklebill and species is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “species of bird” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1261602. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Buff-tailed sicklebill”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Buff-tailed sicklebill primary sources, Buff-tailed sicklebill archive and Buff-tailed research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Buff-tailed sicklebill” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.