Order
Passeriformes
Family
Thraupidae
Genus
Cyanerpes
 
Neotropical Birds logo
Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Shining Honeycreeper Cyanerpes lucidus

Shirley Gillette and Kevin J. Burns
Version: 1.0 — Published January 17, 2011

Systematics

Geographic Variation

Two subspecies are recognized (Storer 1970, Dickinson 2003):

lucidus: Occurs from southeastern Mexico south to Nicaragua (Storer 1970).

isthmicus: Occurs Costa Rica, Panama, and northwestern Colombia (Storer 1970). Similar to nominate lucidus, but "decidedly smaller with shorter and slenderer bill, especially at base; blue color of adult male darker, the crown and hind neck distinctly lighter than, instead of concolor with, the back; female with dorsal surface slightly duller green and the pileum less bluish" (Hellmayr 1935: 264).

Subspecies

Related Species

The genus Cyanerpes at one time was included in the family Coerebidae, united a variety of genera of small, partially nectarivorous nine-primaried oscines (e.g. Hellmayr 1935). In recent years, however, nectar-feeding was believed to be independently derived in different lineages of nine-primaried oscines, and most members of Coerebidae, including Cyanerpes, were reclassified as tanagers, Thraupidae (e.g., Storer 1970). This interpretation has been confirmed through phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data (e.g., Burns et al. 2003). Preliminary data suggest that Cyanerpes is sister to Dacnis (Burns et al. 2003).

Relationships within Cyanerpes have not been studied. Some authors (e.g., Hellmayr 1935) had classified lucidus and isthmicus as subspecies of the Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus). As was later discovered, however, the geographic distributions of the Shining and Purple honeycreepers overlap in eastern Panama and in Colombia, and so the two clearly are separate species.

Recommended Citation

Gillette, S. and K. J. Burns (2011). Shining Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes lucidus), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.shihon1.01