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- Diglossa plumbea
Identification
10cm. Blue-grey with a lead-grey throat and breast. The tail and wings are black with grey feather edges. The female is olive-brown above with a paler throat and breast shading to buff on the belly. Young birds are like the female but have two tawny wing bars and faintly streaked buff-yellow underparts. An upturned bill with a hooked upper mandible and pointed lower mandible.
Distribution
Costa Rica to western Panama.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies are recognized:
- D. p. plumbea - Highlands of Costa Rica and extreme w Panama (Chiriquí)
- D. p. veraguensis - Pacific slope of w Panama (Veraguas)
Habitat
Mountain forest canopy, edge of the forest, in clearings, and in gardens.
Behaviour
The birds approach a flower from behind, pierce a hole in the corolla, and then insert their brush-tipped tongue into the hole to extract the flower nectar, often without pollinating the flower.
The female builds a large cup nest of coarse plant material and lined with fine fibres, placed 0.4 to 4 m up in a dense shrub, grass tussock or pine. 2 brown-speckled pale blue eggs are laid, and are incubated by the female alone for 12-14 days to hatching.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Angehr and Dean 2010: The birds of Panama - a field guide
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Slaty Flowerpiercer. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 4 June 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Slaty_Flowerpiercer