False Oat-Grass Smut vs Long-tailed Sylph

Urocystis avenae-elatioris compared with Aglaiocercus kingii

Key Differences

• False Oat-Grass Smut is Not Evaluated while Long-tailed Sylph is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	False Oat-Grass Smut	Long-tailed Sylph
Kingdom	Fungi (Fungi)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Basidiomycota (Club Fungi)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Ustilaginomycetes (Ustilaginomycetes)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Urocystidales (Urocystidales)	Apodiformes (Apodiformes)
Family	Urocystidaceae	Trochilidae
Genus	Urocystis	Aglaiocercus
Species	Urocystis avenae-elatioris	Aglaiocercus kingii

Conservation Status

False Oat-Grass Smut

NE — Not Evaluated

Long-tailed Sylph

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	False Oat-Grass Smut	Long-tailed Sylph
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

False Oat-Grass Smut

Long-tailed Sylph

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, and Venezuela.

Long-tailed Sylph

One of the most strikingly ornamented hummingbirds, male long-tailed sylphs have iridescent green plumage and dramatically elongated, ribbon-like outer tail feathers reaching up to 22 cm — over three times the body length. Found in Andean cloud forests of Colombia and Venezuela, they inhabit humid montane forest between 1,400–2,800 meters elevation. Males perform elaborate display flights to attract females. Their extravagant tails are a classic example of sexual selection via female preference.