Green honeycreeper

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Green honeycreeper
Adult male C. s. spiza, Trinidad
Female C. s. argutus, Costa Rica

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this 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
  • Motacilla spiza Linnaeus, 1758
  • Certhia spiza Linnaeus, 1766
C. s. guatemalensis female
Belize

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.

Taxonomy

The green honeycreeper was

sister species.[8]

Seven subspecies are recognised:[9]

  • C. s. guatemalensis Sclater, PL, 1861 – south Mexico to Honduras
  • C. s. argutus Bangs & Barbour, 1922 – east Honduras to northwest Colombia
  • C. s. exsul Berlepsch & Taczanowski, 1884 – southwest Colombia and west Ecuador
  • C. s. subtropicalis Todd, 1924 – north, central Colombia and west Venezuela
  • C. s. spiza (Linnaeus, 1758) – Trinidad, east Colombia, Venezuela (except far west), the Guianas and north Brazil
  • C. s. caerulescens Cassin, 1865 – south-central Colombia through east Ecuador and east Peru to central Bolivia and west Brazil
  • C. s. axillaris Zimmer, JT, 1929 – east, southeast Brazil

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]

Description

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.

Behavior

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.

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22723000A94798069.en
    . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 188.
  3. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  4. ^ Edwards, George (1743). A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Vol. Part 1. London: Printed for the author at the College of Physicians. p. 25, Plate 25 right.
  5. ^ Reichenbach, Ludwig (1853). "Icones ad synopsin avium No. 11. Scansoriae B". Handbuch der speciellen Ornithologie (in German). Vol. 6. Dresden und Leipzig: Expedition Vollständigsten Naturgeschichte. pp. 219–316 [233–234].
  6. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1970). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 391.
  7. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  8. PMID 24583021
    .
  9. Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2020). "Tanagers and allies"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 10.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  10. JSTOR 4081756
    .
  11. ^ "Chlorophanes spiza (Green Honeycreeper)" (PDF). Sta.uwi.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-21.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chlorophanes spiza.
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