Sooty barbthroat

The sooty barbthroat ("Threnetes niger") is a species of hummingbird. It is found in French Guiana and far north-eastern Brazil. Its habitat is humid tropical lowland forest. Though normally restricted in range, it is common enough to be thought a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN.
The taxonomy and systematics of the Sooty Barbthroat complex has made much confusion. Some authors thought the Sooty Barbthroat to be a "melanistic variant" of the pale-tailed barbthroat ("T. leucurus").
Not only that, but some suggest that the bronze-tailed barbthroat ("T. n. loehkeni") should also be thought a valid species and have the doubtful Christina's barbthroat ("T. n. christinae") as a subspecies. Freire's Sooty barbthroat (T. n. freirei) is average between the sooty and bronze-tailed barbthroats however, and thus its status needs to be more clear before the problem is fixed.