honeycreeper

/hun"ee kree'peuhr/, n.

1. any of several small, usually brightly colored birds, related to the tanagers and wood warblers, of tropical and semitropical America.

2. See Hawaiian honeycreeper.

[1880-85; HONEY + CREEPER]

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▪ bird

      any of four species of tropical Western Hemisphere birds (bird) of the family Thraupidae, order Passeriformes (passeriform). Many honeycreepers feed on nectar, and some are called sugarbirds.

      All honeycreepers are small, and many have thin, downcurved bills; the tongue is brushy and may be double-tubed. Most are brilliantly coloured, especially the males; for example, the male purple honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus), an active, acrobatic little bird that frequents gardens and woodlands (Woodland) in Panama and parts of northern South America, is a stunning blue with black mask and wings; the female is green. The male of the green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) of Central America and northern South America sports glossy blue-green plumage and a black face mask. Both sexes have a yellow bill and red eyes. The male of the red-legged, or blue, honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus), which ranges from Cuba and Mexico to Ecuador and southern Brazil, is shiny blue in its breeding plumage, with black upper parts and mask. Honeycreepers tend to build open, well-concealed, cup-shaped nests (nest) in trees.

      Birds of the Hawaiian honeycreeper group constitute the family Drepanididae (order Passeriformes) and are referred to as drepanidids.

Sy Montgomery

 

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