This is Bird Note.

The Santa Marta Saber 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,

eluding every attempt to find them.

Then, in 2022, a researcher named Yurgen 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 Saber 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 Saber Wing's remaining

populations.

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

I'm Ariana Remmel.