Legge's flowerpecker
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Legge's flowerpecker (Pachyglossa vincens), also known as the white-throated flowerpecker, is a small passerine bird in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae. It is an endemic resident breeder in Sri Lanka. It is named after the Australian ornithologist William Vincent Legge.<ref>Beolens, Bo & Michael Watkins (2003) Whose Bird?: Men and women commemorated in the common names of birds, Christopher Helm, London.</ref> This species was formerly placed in the genus Dicaeum.
The Legge's flowerpecker is a common resident breeding bird of forests and other well-wooded habitats including gardens. Two eggs are laid in a purse-like nest suspended from a tree.
Description
This is a very small passerine but a relatively stout flowerpecker, measuring Template:Convert in total length and weighing approximately Template:Convert,<ref>Mammides, C., Chen, J., Goodale, U. M., Kotagama, S. W., Sidhu, S., & Goodale, E. (2015). Does mixed-species flocking influence how birds respond to a gradient of land-use intensity? Proc. R. Soc. B, 282(1811), 20151118.</ref> with a short tail, short thick curved bill and tubular tongue. The latter features reflect the importance of nectar in its diet, although berries, spiders and insects are also taken.
The male Legge's flowerpecker has blue-black upperparts, a white throat and upper breast, and yellow lower breast and belly. The female is duller, with olive-brown upperparts.
In culture
In Sri Lanka, this bird is known as Template:Transliteration in Sinhala. This bird appears in a one rupee Sri Lankan postal stamp.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
References
- Birds of India by Grimmett, Inskipp and Inskipp, Template:ISBN
External links
- Flowerpecker videos on the Internet Bird Collection