All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Viridian Dacnis
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Viridian Dacnis | Dacnis viguieri
Blauwgroene pitpit | Dacnis verdoso
The Viridian Dacnis is a small tanager with a short, pointed bill, found only in eastern Panama and north-western Colombia. The male is glossy blue-green and black. It lives in the canopy of humid lowland forest and is scarce and little known.
Voice
Little known; a thin, high tseet.
Recording: Carlos Bran — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm. A small, compact tanager with a short, pointed bill and a yellowish eye. The male is glossy turquoise-green to blue-green, with black lores, a black mantle and black wings and tail; the wing coverts are edged blue-green. The female is uniformly dull green, paler and yellower below, with darker wings edged green.
Confusion species
The male Blue Dacnis Dacnis cayana is a brighter blue, not greenish, and has a black throat patch. The female Blue Dacnis has a blue-grey head. The female Green Honeycreeper Chlorophanes spiza is larger and has a curved, yellow bill.
Habitat
Canopy and edges of humid lowland forest and low foothills, also mature secondary forest and tall trees in clearings; often in mixed flocks with other tanagers.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Eastern Panama, in Darién and eastern Panamá province; scarce and local. Outside the guide area only in north-western Colombia.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The best chance is in Darién, where the species sometimes joins mixed flocks in the canopy of tall trees along forest edges; check male dacnises there closely for the green sheen.
Conservation status
Not threatened (LC). Has a small range and is scarce everywhere; vulnerable to deforestation in Darién and north-western Colombia.
Scientific name
Dacnis viguieri | Oustalet, J-FÉ, 1883
Oustalet, J-FÉ described the species in 1883 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Dacnis was introduced in 1816 by Cuvier, GLCFD. Dacnis comes from the Ancient Greek daknis, an unidentified bird from Egypt. viguieri honours the French zoologist Camille Viguier (1850–1930), who collected in Panama. The specimen the first description was based on came from shore of the Gulf of Darién, Panama.