The plumeleteers are a genus Chalybura of Neotropical hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae.
Taxonomy
The genus Chalybura was introduced in 1854 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. He listed three species in the new genus but did not specify the type species. In 1879 Daniel Giraud Elliot selected Trochilus buffoni Lesson, the white-vented plumeleteer, as the type. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek χαλυψ/khalups meaning "steel" with -ουρος/-ouros meaning "-tailed".
A phylogenetic study published in 2014 found the genus Chalybura containing the plumeleteers was sister to the genus Thalurania containing the woodnymphs.
The genus contains the following two species:
Image
Scientific name
Common name
Distribution
Chalybura buffonii
White-vented plumeleteer
Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela
Chalybura urochrysia
Bronze-tailed plumeleteer
eastern Honduras to northwestern Ecuador
