Puerto Rican Emerald Hummingbirds and Puerto Rican Statehood

Summary: The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2019 advances Puerto Rican statehood and, by extension, Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds as United States wildlife.

female Puerto Rican emerald hummingbird (Chlorostilbon maugaeus), illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XXXVIII, opposite page 96: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2019 abolishes the 120-year colonial status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and, by extension, of Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds, and advances automatic Puerto Rican statehood.

The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2019, introduced March 28, 2019, by Florida Democratic Representative Darren Soto, bears Puerto Rico 51st statehood without conditions or referendums. It conveys economic benefits and voting rights upon the Caribbean island's citizens and celebration of Caribbean island fauna and flora into United States state-by-state wildlife guidebooks. Hummingbirds dwell in the Americas, with Allen's, Anna's, black-chinned, blue-throated, broad-billed, broad-tailed, buff-bellied, Calliope, Costa's, Lucifer, magnificent, ruby-throated, rufous, violet-crowned and white-eared discerned as North American.

Authoritative publications such as those by the American Museum of Natural History enter berylline hummingbirds from Mexico for summer encounters in southeastern Arizona and western Texas.

Puerto Rican coquí tree frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui), hibiscus (Thespesia grandiflora), silk-cotton trees (Ceiba pentandra) and stripe-headed tanagers (Spindalis zena) sometimes function as emblematic, quintessential, symbolic icons.

Puerto Rican statehood to a Caribbean island within the North American continental shelf gives the United States another of the 320-plus-specied crown jewels of the air. Four-plus-year life cycles herald mating seasons February through May and 14- to 16-day incubations of two non-glossy, smooth, white 0.52- by 0.32-plus-inch (13- by 8-millimeter) eggs. Altricial, naked hatchlings inhabit cup-like, fern-scale and lichen, plant down- and wild cotton-lined, 1-plus-inch (2.54-plus-centimeter) outer-diameter, 1-plus-inch- (2.54-plus-centimeter-) high, 0.75-plus-inch (1.91-plus-centimeter) inner-diameter, 1-plus-inch- (2.54-plus-centimeter-) deep nests.

Mother-tended Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds juggle gray undersides and dark upper-sides when they journey as 20- to 22-day-old fledglings from mother-built, mother-maintained nests to independent nesting.

Mature females know 2.95- to 3.35-inch (7.5- to 8.5-centimeter) head-tail lengths, 3.94- to 4.33-inch (10- to 11-centimeter) wingspans and 0.12- to 0.13-ounce (3.4- to 3.8-gram) weights.

Black-billed, gray-throated juveniles and mature females log gray-green crowns and foreheads; grass-green upper-parts and upper-tail coverts; gray undersides; tails less forked than males; and blue-brown-green-white steering-feathers. Mature males manifest 3.35- to 3.74-inch (8.5- to 9.5-centimeter) head-tail lengths, 4.33- to 4.72-inch (11- to 12-centimeter) wingspans and 0.12- to 0.13-ounce (3.4- to 3.8-gram) weights. They net dark, short, straight bills; dark upper and dark-tipped red lower mandibles; glossy-green crowns and foreheads; iridescent blue-green throats; and black-green upper-parts and upper-tail coverts.

Blue-tailed mature males, observed by Jean Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800) and Louis Vieillot (May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830), obtain glossy-green underparts and under-tail coverts.

Puerto Rico's Chlorostilbon maugaeus (from Greek χλωρός, "green" and στίλβω, "gleaming," for René Maugé, 1761?-Feb. 21, 1802) performs backward, downward, forward, upward 50-beat per second flights.

Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds quicken to coastal, coffee plantation, forest and woodland habitats in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands at sea-level through 2,624.67-foot (800-meter) altitudes. They require air- or branch-borne insects; arachnids; and bromeliad (Hohenbergia, Vriesea), coral-tree (Erythrina), false-petunia (Ruellia), ginger-lily (Hedychium), orchid (Dilomilis, Epidendrum), pitch-apple (Clusia) and water-willow (Justicia) nectars. Their strong tic notes sound at various speeds, until they stop on high-pitched, rapid buzzes and trills, from 3.28- to 19.68-foot- (1- to 6-meter-) tall shrubs.

Puerto Rican statehood touches Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds, zumbadorcitos boriqueños de la reserva de la biosfera de Guánica (Puerto Rican hummers of the Guánica Biosphere Reserve).

male Puerto Rican emerald hummingbird (Chlorostilbon maugaeus), illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XXXVII, opposite page 93: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

female Puerto Rican emerald hummingbird (Chlorostilbon maugaeus), illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XXXVIII, opposite page 96: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131961; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51024828888/

male Puerto Rican emerald hummingbird (Chlorostilbon maugaeus), illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XXXVII, opposite page 93: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131956; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51025657042/

For further information:

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé femelle. Planche XXXVIII." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: 96. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131960

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé femelle. Pl. 58." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: opposite page 96. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131961

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé mâle." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: 93-95. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131957

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé mâle. Pl. 57." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: opposite page 93. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131956

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2015. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Princeton Field Guides. Second edition. Princeton NJ; and Woodstock, Oxfordshire, UK: Princeton University Press.

"Guanica." United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization > Natural Sciences > Environment > Ecological Sciences for Sustainable Development > Biosphere Reserves > 292 sites in 37 countries in Europe and North America > United States of America.
Available @ http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?code=USA+35&mode=all

Jativa, Daniel. 28 March 2019. "Bipartisan Pair Introduces Puerto Rico Statehood Bill in Congress." Washington Examiner > News.
Available @ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bipartisan-group-introduced-puerto-rico-statehood-bill-in-congress

Schuchman, Karl-L. "Puerto Rican Emerald Chlorotilbon maugaeus." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 9, Birds II: 464. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing, 2016.