Appearance
The purple honeycreeper is 4.5 in long, weighs 0.42 oz and has a long black decurved bill. The male is purple with black wings, tail and belly, and bright yellow legs. Females and immatures have green upperparts, and green-streaked yellowish-buff underparts. The throat is cinnamon, and there is a blue moustachial stripe.The Trinidadian subspecies " C. c. longirostris" has a longer bill than the mainland forms.
Distribution
The species is a bird of northern South America, and besides the Amazon Basin and the Guianas, a coastal range occurs west of the Andes, including parts of southern Panama. In the south, its range extends to the extreme western Pantanal. Though it is most frequently seen in the lowlands up to 3,300 ft ASL or so, it has been encountered as high as 7,500 ft ASL.
Behavior
The call of purple honeycreeper is a thin high-pitched "zree".The purple honeycreeper is often found in small groups. It feeds on nectar, berries and insects, mainly in the canopy. It is a bold and inquisitive bird, responding readily to the call of the ferruginous pygmy owl by coming out of cover and searching for the presumed predator to mob it.
Habitat
This is a forest canopy species, but also occurs in cocoa and citrus plantations. At the upper limit of its altitudinal range, it frequents premontane rainforest, usually rather low-growing and full of epiphytes and mosses, and even elfin forest and páramo.
Reproduction
The female purple honeycreeper builds a small cup nest in a tree, and incubates the clutch of two brown-blotched white eggs.References:
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