White-booted racket-tail

Appearance

The upperparts are a golden green colour and the rump has a white bar. The throat and breast are a brilliant emerald green. The legs are feathered down to the feet with horny white short feathers. The tail is brownish black and deeply forked. The tail feathers on either side increase in length from the centre and the outermost ones are exceptionally long and have bare shafts tipped by oval plumes, which gives the species its common name.

Naming

Long considered the only species in the monotypic genus ''Ocreatus'', the bird is now sometimes split into three species, the white-booted racket-tail, the Peruvian racket-tail, and the rufous-booted racket-tail. Some taxonomists, such as the American Ornithological Society, continue to lump all the species together, calling it the booted racket-tail.