Red-legged Honeycreeper

The Red-legged Honeycreeper is a small, brilliantly colored member of the tanager family named for its bright red-orange legs, an unusual feature that stands out against its otherwise blue and black plumage. Breeding males are a rich violet-blue overall, with a contrasting turquoise crown patch and black wings, back, and tail, the legs glowing coral-red.

Females look completely different, being green overall with a faint bluish wash on the head and a pale streaked throat, a pattern that provides better camouflage while nesting. Non-breeding males often show a patchy mix of blue and green as they molt between plumages.

This honeycreeper has a fine, slightly curved bill well suited to probing flowers for nectar, and it is a familiar, active visitor to fruiting and flowering trees across its extensive range.

Key field marks

• Breeding male: violet-blue body, turquoise crown, black wings/back/tail, bright red legs
• Female: green overall with a bluish head wash and pale streaked throat
• Slender, slightly decurved bill
• Bright red-orange legs visible on both sexes, though more vivid on males

Similar species

Purple Honeycreeper male is deep purple rather than violet-blue and has yellow, not red, legs. Female Red-legged Honeycreepers can be confused with other green honeycreepers or female tanagers, but the decurved bill and red-orange legs help confirm identification.

Habitat

Red-legged Honeycreepers inhabit forest edge, second growth, plantations such as coffee and cacao, gardens, and semi-open woodland, generally avoiding dense unbroken forest interior.

Range

The species ranges from Mexico through Central America and across much of tropical South America, including Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, the Amazon basin, and south to Bolivia and southern Brazil, plus Trinidad and Tobago.

Migration

Most populations are resident, though some local or seasonal movements occur in response to flowering and fruiting cycles.

Behavior

These honeycreepers are active and often gregarious, sometimes gathering in small groups at flowering or fruiting trees, and frequently joining mixed-species foraging flocks.

Voice

Calls include thin, high-pitched 'tsip' or 'seep' notes given in flight or while foraging, along with a more varied, warbling song from males.

Feeding

It feeds on nectar probed from flowers with its curved bill, as well as small fruits and insects gleaned from foliage, making it an important pollinator for some flowering trees.

Nesting and breeding

The female builds a small, neat cup nest in a tree or shrub and generally incubates alone, though the species can be seasonally polygynous in some populations, with males contributing little to nesting duties.