Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus)

Identification & Behavior: ~10.5 cm (4.1 in). The male Purple Honeycreeper is all bright blue with black wings, throat, and tail. The female is green above. The underparts are striped with green and buffy. The lores and throat are buffy and it shows a blue malar stripe. The legs are bright yellow. It forages in the canopy of mature forest nearly always in the company of mixed species flocks. The very similar male Short-billed Honeycreeper has red legs. The female Short-billed Honeycreeper has green sides of the head and lores and a small blue malar stripe. Also, see Red-legged Honeycreeper.

Status: The Purple Honeycreeper is fairly common and widespread in Amazonia where it is known to range up to 1300 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Mielero Purpúra.

Sub-species: Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus microrhynchus), (Berlepsch), 1884.

Meaning of Name: Cyanerpes: Gr. kuanos= dark-blue and herpes, herpo= creeper, creeping, to crawl. caeruleus: L. caeruleus= blue.

See more of the Family Thraupidae