BLUE BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Red-Legged Honeycreeper

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Cyanerpes Cyaneus

Males are 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 molts into eclipse plumage, mainly greenish with black wings.

Females and juveniles are mainly green, with paler, faintly streaked underparts. The legs are red-brown in the female and brown in young birds.

BILL: black, medium-long and slightly decurved.

SIZE: the average measure is about 4.8 inches in length.

WEIGHT: weighs about 14 grams.

COLOR: violet-blue, red, turquoise, lemon yellow, green, red-brown, brown and black.

Nectar and small insects in flowers; ripe fruits, pulp, and seeds.

Wet evergreen forest and edges, citrus and cocoa plantations, semi-open areas with scattered trees, open woodlands and clearings.

Southern Mexico, through Central America, southwards to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil. It is also found in Cuba, Trinidad, and Tobago.

CALL: Utters a high-pitched “ssit” in flight. It also utters high “shree” calls, rolled and slightly nasal “srrip”, and a rough mewing “meeah”.

SONG: A series of weak “tsip” and “chaa” repeated for several minutes.