Honeycreepers are specialist nectar feeders with long curved bills, part of the tanager family. They are found from Mexico south to Brazil. Our gallery shows the red-legged honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus), a small songbird species in the tanager family (Thraupidae). 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. The female and immatures are mainly green, with paler, faintly streaked underparts. The legs are red-brown in the female, and brown in young birds. They are found in tropical Central and northern South America from Mexico south to Brazil. It is able to extract the pulp of an orange through the holes made by woodpeckers. Red-legged Honeycreeper usually forages in canopy, searching for insects on small branches, or catching them in flight. It also feeds lower, picking ripe fruits for reaching the seeds inside. It also takes nectar from flowers, thanks to its long decurved bill.
