Purple Honeycreeper

The purple honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus) is a small Neotropical bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in the tropical New World from Colombia and Venezuela south to Brazil, and on Trinidad. A few, possibly introduced, birds have been recorded on Tobago. == Taxonomy == The purple honeycreeper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Certhia carrulea. Linnaeus based his description on "The Blue Creeper" that had been described and illustrated in 1743 by the English naturalist George Edwards from specimens collected in Suriname. The specimens had been mounted in glass cases and were owned by the Duke of Richmond. The purple honeycreeper is now placed in the genus Cyanerpes that was introduced in 1899 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser. The specific epithet caeruleus is Latin for "dark blue". Five subspecies are recognised: C. c. chocoanus Hellmayr, 1920 – east Panama to west Ecuador C. c. caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) – central Colombia and Venezuela through the Guianas and north-central Brazil C. c. hellmayri Gyldenstolpe, 1945 – Potaro Highlands (Guyana) C. c. longirostris (Cabanis, 1851) – Trinidad C. c. microrhynchus (Berlepsch, 1884)…