Red-legged honeycreeper | |
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Adult male, Panama | |
Female | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Thraupidae |
Genus: | Cyanerpes |
Species: | C. cyaneus |
Binomial name | |
Cyanerpes cyaneus (Linnaeus, 1766) | |
Synonyms | |
Certhia cyaneaLinnaeus, 1766 |
The red-legged honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus) 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. [2]
The red-legged honeycreeper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Certhia cyanea. [3] [4] Linnaeus based his description on "The Black and Blue Creeper" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the English naturalist George Edwards from a specimen collected in Suriname. [5] The red-legged honeycreeper is now placed in the genus Cyanerpes that was introduced in 1899 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser. [6] [7] The specific epithet cyaneus is a Latin word meaning "dark-blue". [8]
Eleven subspecies are recognised: [7]
The red-legged honeycreeper is on average 12.2 cm (4.8 in) long, weighs 14 g (0.49 oz) and has a medium-long black, slightly decurved, bill. The male is violet-blue with black wings, tail and back, and bright red legs. The crown of its head is turquoise, and the underwing, visible only in flight, is lemon yellow. After the breeding season, the male moults into an eclipse plumage, mainly greenish with black wings.
Females and immatures are mainly green, with paler, faintly streaked underparts. The legs are red-brown in the female, and brown in young birds.
The call of red-legged honeycreeper is a thin, high-pitched tsip.
Several subspecies are known. Differences are generally slight, with the Tobago race C. c. tobagensis being slightly larger than the mainland forms for example.
The purplish honeycreeper (Chlorophanes purpurascens), a bird from Venezuela known only from the type specimen, is considered to be an intergeneric hybrid between the green honeycreeper and either the red-legged honeycreeper or the blue dacnis. [9]
This is a species of forest edge, open woodland, and cocoa and citrus plantations. The red-legged honeycreeper is often found in small groups. It feeds on insects and some seeds, [10] fruit [11] and nectar. [12] It responds readily to the (easily imitated) call of the ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum).
In Costa Rica red-legged honeycreepers generally breed between April and June. The nest is built entirely by the female and is placed in a shrub or tree several meters above the ground. The cup-shaped nest has thin side walls and is formed of stiff fibres. It is attached to the supporting twigs with cobwebs. The clutch consists of two eggs that are laid in early morning on consecutive days. They are 13.4 mm × 19.1 mm (0.53 in × 0.75 in) in size and have a white background with brown speckles forming a ring around the larger end. The female incubates the eggs for 12 or 13 days. When they first hatch the nestlings have their eyes closed and are covered with tuffs of grey down. They are brooded by the female but fed by both parents. They fledge after around 14 days. [13] [14]
A specimen studied in the Parque Nacional de La Macarena of Colombia was found to be free of blood parasites. [15]
Common and widespread, the red-legged honeycreeper is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. [1]
The bananaquit is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. Before the development of molecular genetics in the 21st century, its relationship to other species was uncertain and it was either placed with the buntings and New World sparrows in the family Emberizidae, with New World warblers in the family Parulidae or its own monotypic family Coerebidae. This small, active nectarivore is found in warmer parts of the Americas and is generally common.
The blue-gray tanager is a medium-sized South American songbird of the tanager family, Thraupidae. Its range is from Mexico south to northeast Bolivia and northern Brazil, all of the Amazon Basin, except the very south. It has been introduced to Lima (Peru). On Trinidad and Tobago, this bird is called blue jean.
The wattled jacana is a wader in the family Jacanidae found throughout much of South America east of the Andes, as well as western Panama and Trinidad. It is the only species in the Jacanidae family with such a large distribution. Wattled jacanas have long toes and claws which help them walk through aquatic vegetation. Like the majority of species of jacanas, the female is larger than the male, and forms harems of up to 4 or 5 males at any given time. There is also a major difference in proportional development or ornamentation and defense relative to body size when compared to males.
The great kiskadee, called bem-te-vi in Brazil, pitogue in Paraguay, benteveo or bichofeo in Argentina, and luis bienteveo, pitabil, luis grande or chilera in Mexico, is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. It is the only member of the genus Pitangus.
The turquoise tanager is a medium-sized passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is a resident bird from Trinidad, much of Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela south to Bolivia. It is restricted to areas with humid forest, with its primary distribution being the Amazon. It was formerly treated as being conspecific with the white-bellied tanager which is found in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil.
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 green honeycreeper 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 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 white-necked jacobin is a medium-size hummingbird that ranges from Mexico south through Central America and northern South America into Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. It is also found in Trinidad & Tobago.
The barred antshrike is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in the Neotropics in Mexico, every country in Central America, Trinidad and Tobago, and every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. There is also one accepted record from southern Texas.
The black-crested antshrike is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in tropical South America in Trinidad, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, and Peru.
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 yellow-rumped cacique is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in much of northern South America from Panama and Trinidad south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil. However, they have been sighted as far north as Nayarit state in Mexico.
The blue-headed parrot, also known as the blue-headed pionus is a medium-sized parrot of about 27 cm (11 in) in length. The body is mostly green, with a blue head and neck, and red undertail coverts. It is a resident in tropical and subtropical South America and southern Central America, from Costa Rica, Venezuela and the Caribbean island of Trinidad south to Bolivia and Brazil.
The shining honeycreeper is a small bird in the tanager family. It is found in the tropical New World in Central America from southern Mexico to Panama and northwest Colombia. It is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the purple honeycreeper, but the two species breed sympatrically in eastern Panama and northwest Colombia.
The blue ground dove is a small New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder from southeastern Mexico to northwestern Peru and northern Argentina, and on Trinidad in the Caribbean.
The common tody-flycatcher or black-fronted tody-flycatcher is a very small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds from southern Mexico to northwestern Peru, eastern Bolivia and southern, eastern and northeast Brazil.
The scarlet-thighed dacnis is a tanager 4¾" long. It is found in Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama.
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 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.