Tanagers (Thraupidae)

Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus) - HBW 16, p. 251

French: Guit-guit céruléen German: Purpurnaschvogel Spanish: Mielerito Cerúleo
Other common names: Yellow-legged Honeycreeper

Taxonomy: Certhia caerulea Linnaeus, 1758, Suriname.
This genus and Dacnis were previously regarded as members of a separate family, Coerebidae, but later placed in present family on basis of similarities in skull anatomy; molecular phylogenies indicate that the two genera are sisters and form a monophyletic group with Tersina. Present species thought to form a superspecies with C. lucidus; in the past sometimes treated as conspecific, but the two are sympatric in extreme E Panama and adjacent NW Colombia. Five subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

chocoanus Hellmayr, 1920 - extreme E Panama (Darién) and Pacific coast of Colombia (from Chocó) S to W Ecuador (S to El Oro).
caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Colombia (on E slope of E Andes in Boyacá), Venezuela (mountains of Falcón, coastal range from Carabobo E to Sucre, N Monagas, Delta Amacuro, also W Amazonas and Bolívar), Suriname, French Guiana (probably also lowlands of Guyana), and NC Brazil (S to R Tapajós and NW Maranhão).
longirostris (Cabanis, 1851) - Trinidad.

See all 5 subspecies

chocoanus Hellmayr, 1920 - extreme E Panama (Darién) and Pacific coast of Colombia (from Chocó) S to W Ecuador (S to El Oro).
caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Colombia (on E slope of E Andes in Boyacá), Venezuela (mountains of Falcón, coastal range from Carabobo E to Sucre, N Monagas, Delta Amacuro, also W Amazonas and Bolívar), Suriname, French Guiana (probably also lowlands of Guyana), and NC Brazil (S to R Tapajós and NW Maranhão).
longirostris (Cabanis, 1851) - Trinidad.
hellmayri Gyldenstolpe, 1945 - Potaro Highlands, in Guyana.
microrhynchus (Berlepsch, 1884) - Venezuela (W & S Zulia, W base of Andes in Táchira and Mérida, E base S from SE Lara, and N & W Amazonas S of R Orinoco), and Colombia (N base of W Andes in R Sinú drainage and E to middle Magdalena Valley, also E of Andes from Meta and Caquetá) S to E Ecuador, E Peru, N Bolivia (S to Santa Cruz), and Amazonian Brazil (E to mouth of R Amazon and WC Mato Grosso).