Long-tailed Sylph vs Monkey Apple

Aglaiocercus kingii compared with Annona glabra

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Long-tailed Sylph	Monkey Apple
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Plantae (Plants)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)
Class	Aves (Birds)	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
Order	Apodiformes (Apodiformes)	Magnoliales (Magnoliales)
Family	Trochilidae	Annonaceae
Genus	Aglaiocercus	Annona
Species	Aglaiocercus kingii	Annona glabra

Conservation Status

Long-tailed Sylph

LC — Least Concern

Monkey Apple

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Long-tailed Sylph	Monkey Apple
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Long-tailed Sylph

Habitat

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

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, and Venezuela.

Monkey Apple

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands spanning the Australasia and Indomalayan realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Guinea, Seychelles), Asia (6 countries), North America (Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras), Oceania and the Pacific (6 countries), and South America (Brazil, Colombia).

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.