All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Bluish Flowerpiercer
Bluish Flowerpiercer | Diglossa caerulescens
Grijsblauwe berghoningkruiper | Pinchaflor azulado | Fura-flor-azulado
The Bluish Flowerpiercer is a uniformly dull blue flowerpiercer of humid montane forest in the Andes. Unlike most of its relatives, it forages mainly in the forest canopy itself and less in edge scrub. With its slightly hooked bill it pierces flowers at the side to reach the nectar.
Voice
The song is a soft, high, rapid twittering of thin notes. The call is a fine tsit.
Recording: Peter de Rouw — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a fairly slender bill with a small hook at the tip. The whole plumage is dull greyish blue, paler and greyer below. The lores and forehead are blackish, forming a small, inconspicuous mask. The eye is reddish to orange. The sexes are alike; the female is sometimes slightly duller. Juveniles are greyer and browner, with an olive tinge.
Confusion species
Masked Flowerpiercer Diglossa cyanea is brighter ultramarine blue, with a large black mask and a red eye, and usually lives higher. Indigo Flowerpiercer Diglossa indigotica is smaller and deep indigo blue with a yellow eye, and lives on the western slope in Colombia and Ecuador. Golden-eyed Flowerpiercer Diglossa glauca is darker blue with a conspicuous yellow eye and lives lower on the eastern slope. Capped Conebill Conirostrum albifrons has a thin, straight bill without a hook.
Habitat
The interior and edges of humid montane forest and cloud forest, roughly between 1500 and 2700 m, locally higher. It forages in the middle and upper levels of the forest, often in mixed flocks with tanagers. It pierces flowers for nectar and also takes small berries and insects. The nest is a small cup in a shrub or tree.
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 all three Andean ranges and in the Sierra de Perijá. In Ecuador mainly on the eastern slope of the Andes. In Peru along the eastern slope throughout the country. In Bolivia on the eastern slope of the Andes in La Paz and Cochabamba. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the mountains of Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Follow mixed tanager flocks in cloud forest and watch for a plain greyish blue bird working flowers in the canopy. Flowering trees at forest edges and along mountain roads attract it.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is widespread but usually occurs in small numbers; deforestation of the mountain slopes may play a role locally.
Scientific name
Diglossa caerulescens | (Sclater, 1856)
Sclater described the species in 1856 as Diglossopis caerulescens; 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 caerulescens, 'bluish'. The specimen the first description was based on came from near Caracas, Venezuela.