This is Bird Note.

The Santa Marta Sabre Wing is a hummingbird species so rare, they've only been documented twice in recent years.

Native to the mountains of Columbia, they're part of the hummingbird group called emeralds for their luminous green feathers.

Officially described in 1946, no one reported another sighting until 2010.

Then the saber wing went missing for years.

They became one of more than 150 bird species considered lost, not yet extinct but missing,

alluding every attempt to find them. Then, in 2022, a researcher named Yergen Vega was

studying the birds of a mountain range called the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. He spotted an unusual

large hummingbird. The bird stuck around long enough

for a photo, and the Santa Marta Sabre Wing was lost no more. This bird was a male with a vibrant

blue throat. In previous centuries, the species was probably common, but most of the forests

where they live

have been destroyed or fragmented,

leading to declines in this species and many others.

Biologists are now trying to understand

the size and location

of the Sabre Wing's remaining populations.

Learn more about lost birds and efforts to find them on our website.

Birdnote.org.

I'm Ariana Rimmel.

Birdnote is grateful to former board member and photographer extraordinaire Owen Deutsch and his wife, Rona Talcott, for their strong support over the years.