Long-tailed Sylph vs Wild Lettuce

Aglaiocercus kingii compared with Lactuca indica

Key Differences

• Long-tailed Sylph is Least Concern while Wild Lettuce is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

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

Conservation Status

Long-tailed Sylph

LC — Least Concern

Wild Lettuce

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Long-tailed Sylph	Wild Lettuce
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.

Wild Lettuce

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Comoros, Madagascar, South Africa), Asia (Laos, Taiwan), and South America (Brazil).

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.