- Chlorophanes spiza
Description
Male is overall blue-green with a black hood which covers the crown and the auriculars and goes down into a tip on the side of the neck. Bill is slender and decurved, yellow except for the upper half of upper mandible, which is black. Eye is red in adult, reddish-brown in the immature which otherwise looks like a female. Female is overall green with the bill imitating the bill of the male. Both sexes have gray legs.
Note: the included image exaggerates the blue in the plumage of the male, look at other images in the gallery by following the link at the end of this entry
Distribution
Green Honeycreeper is found from Mexico through Central America and South America to Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and east through Venezuela and the Guianas to eastern Brazil; also in Trinidad.
Taxonomy
Seven subspecies are included in Clements Checklist of Birds of the World1. Honeycrepers are grouped with Tanagers.
Habitat
Humid forest, mainly in the canopy
Behavior
Eats fruits, a little nectar and the occasional insect. Will also frequent fruit feeders as for example Asa Wright in Trinidad.
References
- Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019