From Opus

Photo by Reini
Costa Rica

Cyanerpes cyaneus

[edit] Identification

12 cm
Long, slightly decurved black bill, black eye, short tail.
Male in breeding (alternate) plumage: purple-blue with black lores, wings and tail, purple-blue scapulars and rump, turquoise crown, yellow underwings, red legs. Male in basic (non-breeding) plumage: Green overall, but black in tail and wings still there; above the black lore is a pale stripe, and the throat and underparts are streaked lemon.

Female
Photo by Reini
Costa Rica, February 2005

Female green overall including upper wings and tail, with yellow underwings. Similarly to the basic plumage male, she has lemon streaking on underparts that become more solid lemon on belly and undertail coverts. She has dusky-black lores with a pale supraloral stripe continuing above and behind the eye and reddish legs.
All red-legged honeycreepers are born green and the males moult and put on their distinctive colors a bit later.

[edit] Distribution

Southern Mexico and Cuba through Central America to Bolivia and Brazil as well as both Trinidad and Tobago.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• C. c. carneipes: Gulf slope of southern Mexico to northern Colombia; Coiba Island and Pearl Island
• C. c. gemmeus: Northern Colombia (Serranía de Macuire on Guajira Peninsula)

Juvenile male (nearly completed moult to adult)
Photo by photosloz
Arenal, Costa Rica, January 2008

• C. c. pacificus: Pacific coast of western Colombia and western Ecuador
• C. c. gigas: Gorgona Islands (off Pacific coast of Colombia)
• C. c. eximius: Tropical northern Colombia to northern Venezuela; Isla Margarita
• C. c. dispar: Eastern Colombia to southern Venezuela, western Brazil and north-eastern Peru
• C. c. tobagensis: Tobago
• C. c. cyaneus: Tropical south-eastern Venezuela to the Guianas and north-eastern Brazil; Trinidad
• C. c. brevipes: Central Amazonian Brazil
• C. c. holti: Eastern Brazil
• C. c. violaceus: Central Bolivia and western Brazil

[edit] Habitat

Humid forests, deciduous forests, woodland edges, shrubby areas, plantations.

In Trinidad described as a "wanderer" outside breeding season, where it can turn up in unexpected places.

[edit] Behaviour

It feeds on flowering trees, but will also visit fruit feeders.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. BF Member observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links