Garden cornflower vs Long-tailed Sylph

Centaurea cyanus compared with Aglaiocercus kingii

Key Differences

• Garden cornflower is Near Threatened while Long-tailed Sylph is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Garden cornflower	Long-tailed Sylph
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Asterales (Daisies & Sunflowers)	Apodiformes (Apodiformes)
Family	Asteraceae (Daisy Family)	Trochilidae
Genus	Centaurea	Aglaiocercus
Species	Centaurea cyanus	Aglaiocercus kingii

Conservation Status

Garden cornflower

NT — Near Threatened

Long-tailed Sylph

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Garden cornflower	Long-tailed Sylph
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Garden cornflower

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, among 8 distinct biome types spanning the Indomalayan and Neotropic and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (South Africa), Asia (Nepal, Taiwan), Europe (22 countries), North America (Canada, United States), and South America (Argentina, Chile, Colombia). Listed as Near Threatened, this species requires ongoing monitoring to prevent population decline.

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.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

🇨🇴 Colombia 🇳🇴 Norway