All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Black Flowerpiercer
Black Flowerpiercer | Diglossa humeralis
Zwarte berghoningkruiper | Pinchaflor negro | Fura-flor-preto
The Black Flowerpiercer is a plain black flowerpiercer of scrub, hedgerows and forest edges high in the northern Andes. It is one of the commonest nectar thieves of the highlands and also occurs in gardens and field margins. The scientific name humeralis refers to the grey shoulder patch of birds in the Eastern Andes of Colombia.
Voice
The song is a fast, jumbled series of twittering and chirping notes, often long-sustained; the call is a short tsik.
Recording: Paul Coopmans — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with an upturned bill with a hooked tip. Entirely dull black; birds of the Eastern Andes of Colombia have a small blue-grey shoulder patch, which is usually absent in birds further west and south. The sexes are alike; juveniles are browner, with paler, streaked underparts.
Confusion species
Glossy Flowerpiercer Diglossa lafresnayii is larger and glossier, with an obvious blue-grey shoulder patch, and lives more in forest near the treeline. White-sided Flowerpiercer Diglossa albilatera is smaller and greyer black, with a white patch on the flanks. Masked Flowerpiercer Diglossa cyanea is blue with a black mask. In northern Peru the species meets Black-throated Flowerpiercer Diglossa brunneiventris, which has a chestnut belly and a grey malar stripe.
Habitat
Scrub, hedgerows, forest edges, shrubby páramo, gardens and field margins, mostly between about 2400 and 3800 m. It lives alone or in pairs and joins mixed flocks less often than its relatives. It pierces the side of flower corollas for nectar and also eats insects. The nest is a cup in a shrub or in dense vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Eastern, Central and Western Andes and in the Sierra de Perijá. In Ecuador along the Andes and in the inter-Andean valleys over almost the whole length of the country. In Peru only in the far north. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search hedgerows and shrubby roadsides above 2500 m and flowering shrubs in gardens; the birds are restless and hop quickly from flower to flower.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common and widespread; the species tolerates a human-shaped landscape with hedgerows and gardens well.
Scientific name
Diglossa humeralis | (Fraser, 1840)
Fraser described the species in 1840 as Agrilorhinus humeralis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Diglossa was introduced in 1832 by Wagler. The genus name comes from Greek diglōssos, 'double-tongued' or 'speaking two languages'. The specific name comes from Latin humerus, 'shoulder': 'of the shoulder', after the contrasting shoulder patch. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.