XI-HUĪTZITZIL-IN, Broad-billed Hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris) [FC: 24 Xihujtzilli] “It is entirely, completely light blue like a cotinga , pale like fine turquoise. It is resplendent like turquoise, like fine turquoise.” Martin del Campo identified this bird as the Costa’s Hummingbird (Calypte costae). However, that species is limited to the northern Pacific lowlands. Furthermore, it looks nothing like the description. The Broad-billed Hummingbird is a far better fit, though Martin del Campo attributes that species to CHALCHI-HUĪTZIL-IN.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963); Rafael Martín del Campo, “Ensayo de interpretación del Libro Undecimo de la Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España de Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – 11 Las Aves (1),” Anales del Instituto de Biología Tomo XI, Núm. 1 (México, D.F., 1940); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.