Long-tailed Sylph vs White-winged Tern

Aglaiocercus kingii compared with Chlidonias leucopterus

Key Differences

• Long-tailed Sylph is Least Concern while White-winged Tern is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Long-tailed Sylph	White-winged Tern
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (Chordates)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class same	Aves (Birds)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Apodiformes (Apodiformes)	Charadriiformes (Charadriiformes)
Family	Trochilidae	Laridae
Genus	Aglaiocercus	Chlidonias
Species	Aglaiocercus kingii	Chlidonias leucopterus

Evolutionary Relationship

Long-tailed Sylph and White-winged Tern share a common ancestor at the Class level: Aves. (Birds)

Conservation Status

Long-tailed Sylph

LC — Least Concern

White-winged Tern

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Long-tailed Sylph	White-winged Tern
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.

White-winged Tern

Habitat

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

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (4 countries), and North America (United States).

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.

White-winged Tern

White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) is classified as Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List. Not yet evaluated against IUCN Red List criteria. Conservation status remains to be determined.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 1 countries:

🇳🇴 Norway