| Photo Information |
Copyright: Luis Vargas (Chiza)
![Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 34 W: 0 N: 197]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/s-n-g.gif) (964) |
| Genre: Animals |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2009-04-26 |
| Categories: Birds |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2009-04-27 22:06 |
| Viewed: 610 |
| Points: 2 |
|
| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note [Spanish] |
Red-legged Honeycreeper
From Wikipedia
Cyanerpes cyaneus
Adult male in breeding plumage
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Cyanerpes
Species: C. cyaneus
Binomial name
Cyanerpes cyaneus
(Linnaeus, 1766)
The Red-legged Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus) is a small bird in the tanager family. 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.
The Red-legged Honeycreeper is 12.2cm long, weighs 14g 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 Tobago subspecies C. c. tobagensis is slightly larger than the mainland forms. The call of Red-legged Honeycreeper is a thin, high-pitched tsip.
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 fruit[1] and nectar. It responds readily to the (easily imitated) call of the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl.
The female Red-legged Honeycreeper builds a small cup nest in a tree, and incubates the clutch of two brown-blotched white eggs for 12-13 days, with a further 14 days to fledging. |
Only registered TrekNature members may rate photo notes. |
|
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 827 W: 0 N: 1245]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif){kind=small}
