Shining honeycreeper

Cyanerpes lucidus

The shining honeycreeper (Cyanerpes lucidus) is a small bird in the tanager family.

Family: Thraupidae Order: passerines Conservation: Least Concern

About the Shining honeycreeper

The shining honeycreeper (Cyanerpes lucidus) is a small bird in the tanager family. It is found in the tropical New World in Central America from southern Mexico to Panama and northwest Colombia. It is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the purple honeycreeper (C. caeruleus), but the two species breed sympatrically in eastern Panama and northwest Colombia. This is a forest canopy species, but also occurs in forest edges and secondary growth. The female builds a shallow cup nest in a tree, and incubates a clutch of two eggs. The shining honeycreeper is 10 cm long, weighs 11 g and has a long black decurved bill. The male is purple-blue with black wings, tail and throat, and bright yellow legs. The female has green upperparts, a greenish-blue head, buff throat and buff-streaked blui

Fun Facts About Shining honeycreeper

The shining honeycreeper is 10 cm long, weighs 11 g and has a long black decurved bill.
The female builds a shallow cup nest in a tree, and incubates a clutch of two eggs.
The call of this honeycreeper is a thin high-pitched seee, and the male's song is a pit pit pit pit pit-pit repeated for minutes at a time.
Unlike the female shining honeycreeper, the female purple honeycreeper has buff (not dusky) lores and, except for its malar, no clear blue tinge to the head.
This species is very similar to the purple honeycreeper, but the male of the latter species is overall slightly darker and its black throat patch is smaller.

Conservation Status

The Shining honeycreeper is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. This species is currently stable and not at significant risk of population decline.

View on IUCN Red List →

Taxonomy & Classification

Order	passerines
Family	Thraupidae
Genus	Cyanerpes
Species	Cyanerpes lucidus

Range & Habitat