Green honeycreeper | |
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Adult male C. s. spiza, Trinidad | |
Female C. s. argutus, Costa Rica | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Thraupidae |
Genus: | Chlorophanes Reichenbach, 1853 |
Species: | C. spiza |
Binomial name | |
Chlorophanes spiza (Linnaeus, 1758) | |
Synonyms | |
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The green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) is a small bird in the tanager family. It is found in the tropical New World from southern Mexico south to Brazil, and on Trinidad. It is the only member of the genus Chlorophanes.
The green honeycreeper was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Motacilla spiza. He specified the type locality as Suriname. [2] The specific epithet is the Ancient Greek word for a common finch. [3] Linnaeus based his description on the "green black-cap fly-catcher" that the English naturalist George Edwards had described and illustrated in his 1743 book A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. [4] In 1853 the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach erected the genus Chlorophanes to accommodate the green honeycreeper. [5] [6] The name combines the Ancient Greek khlōros meaning green with -phanēs meaning showing. [7] A comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the tanager family Thraupidae published in 2014 found that the green honeycreeper and the golden-collared honeycreeper (Iridophanes pulcherrimus) were sister species. [8]
Seven subspecies are recognised: [9]
The purplish honeycreeper (Chlorophanes purpurascens), a bird from Venezuela known only from the type specimen, is now thought to be an intergeneric hybrid between the green honeycreeper and either the red-legged honeycreeper or the blue dacnis. [10]
The green honeycreeper is 13–14 cm (5.1–5.5 in) long and weighs 14 to 23 grams (0.49 to 0.81 oz), averaging about 19 grams (0.67 oz). It has a long decurved bill. The male is mainly blue-tinged green with a black head and a mostly bright yellow bill. The female green honeycreeper is grass-green, paler on the throat, and lacks the male's iridescence and black head. Immatures are plumaged similar to females. The call is a sharp chip.
This is a forest canopy species. The female green honeycreeper builds a small cup nest in a tree, and incubates the clutch of two brown-blotched white eggs for 13 days. It is less heavily dependent on nectar than the other honeycreepers, fruit and seeds [11] being its main food (60%), with nectar (20%) and insects (15%) as less important components of its diet.
The blue-black grassquit is a small Neotropical bird in the tanager family, Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Volatinia. It is a common and widespread bird that breeds from southern Mexico through Central America, and South America as far as northern Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay, and in Trinidad and Tobago. A male was also observed in Graham County, Arizona on July 15 and July 17, 2023.
The typical honeycreepers form a genus Cyanerpes of small birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. They are found in the tropical New World from Mexico south to Brazil. They occur in the forest canopy, and, as the name implies, they are specialist nectar feeders with long curved bills.
The purple honeycreeper is a small Neotropical bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in the tropical New World from Colombia and Venezuela south to Brazil, and on Trinidad. A few, possibly introduced birds have been recorded on Tobago.
The red-legged honeycreeper is a small songbird species in the tanager family (Thraupidae). It is found in the tropical New World from southern Mexico south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, and on Cuba, where possibly introduced. It is also rarely found in southern Texas.
The bay-headed tanager is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder in Costa Rica, Panama, South America south to Ecuador, Bolivia and north-western Brazil, and on Trinidad.
The blue dacnis or turquoise honeycreeper is a small passerine bird. This member of the tanager family is found from Nicaragua to Panama, on Trinidad, and in South America south to Bolivia and northern Argentina. It is widespread and often common, especially in parts of its South American range.
The grass-green tanager is a small South America bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Chlorornis.
Lanio is the genus of shrike-tanagers in the family Thraupidae.
The swallow tanager is a species of Neotropic bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Tersina. It is found widely throughout South America, from eastern Panama to far northern Argentina. The species is sexually dimorphic: the female is a yellow-green and the male a turquoise blue with a small deep black face and upper throat patch.
The guira tanager is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae.
The golden-collared honeycreeper is an uncommon species of Neotropical bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Iridophanes.
The fulvous shrike-tanager is a South American bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
The Greater Antillean bullfinch is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae.
The red-cowled cardinal is a bird species in the tanager family (Thraupidae). It is not very closely related to the cardinals proper (Cardinalidae).
The lined seedeater is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae.
The ruddy-breasted seedeater is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, and heavily degraded former forest.
The flame-crested tanager is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. Ten subspecies are currently recognized.
The burnished-buff tanager, also known as the rufous-crowned tanager, is a common South American species of bird in the family Thraupidae.
The opal-rumped tanager is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest of South America. The population of the Atlantic Forest has a far paler chest than the other populations, and has often been considered a separate species as the silvery-breasted tanager. Today most authorities treat it as a subspecies of the opal-rumped tanager.
The purplish honeycreeper is a bird in the Thraupidae, or tanager family. It is known only from the type specimen, a trade-skin held in the British Museum, and is thought to be an intergeneric hybrid between the green honeycreeper and either the red-legged honeycreeper or the blue dacnis, though Hellmayr, in his Catalogue of birds of the Americas and the adjacent islands, considered it a good species.