Red-legged Honeycreeper
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| 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, and on Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago.
This is a species of forest edge, open woodland, and cocoa and citrus plantations. 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.
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 breeding, 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 Tobagian race C. c. tobagensis is slightly larger than the mainland forms. The call of Red-legged Honeycreeper is a thin, high-pitched tsip.
The Red-legged Honeycreeper is often found in small groups. It feeds on insects and some berries and nectar. It responds readily to the call of the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Cyanerpes cyaneus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- Birds of Trinidad and Tobago by ffrench, ISBN 0-7136-6759-1
