Green Honeycreeper - BirdForum Opus

Male on left - Female on right, this should be subspecies spiza
Photo © by Dave B Smith
Asa Wright, Trinidad
Note: this 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

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. Throat can be contrasting yellow in immature birds.

Both sexes have gray legs.

Variation

Males of subspecies subtropicalis and caerulescens are a darker blue than the other subspecies.

Distribution

Juvenile
Photo © by Lcverissimo
Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil, September 2012

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

Honeycrepers are grouped with Tanagers.

Subspecies

Male Subspecies guatemalensis
Photo © by peterday
Pico Bonito Lodge Honduras, March 2016

Male Subspecies spiza
Photo © by peterday
Asa Wright Nature Centre Trinidad, March 2024

There are 7 subspecies^[1]:

C. s. guatemalensis:

Southern Mexico (Oaxaca) to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras

C. s. arguta:

Extreme eastern Honduras to north-western Colombia

C. s. exsul:

Tropical south-western Colombia to western Ecuador and extreme north-western Peru

C. s. subtropicalis:

Andes of Colombia and western Venezuela

C. s. caerulescens:

South-eastern Colombia to eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru and western Bolivia

C. s. spiza:

Eastern Colombia to Venezuela, the Guianas and northern Brazil; Trinidad

C. s. axillaris:

Coastal eastern Brazil (Pernambuco to Santa Catarina)

Habitat

Humid forest, mainly in the canopy

Behavior

Diet

Eats fruits, a little nectar and the occasional insect. Will also frequent fruit feeders as for example Asa Wright in Trinidad.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Green Honeycreeper. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 November 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Green_Honeycreeper

External Links

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