Dicaeum

Dicaeum
Male Wakatobi flowerpecker.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Dicaeidae
Genus: Dicaeum
Cuvier, 1816
Species

see text

Pale-billed flowerpecker Dicaeum erythrorhynchos with a Muntingia calabura berry (Hyderabad, India)
Thick-billed flowerpecker Dicaeum agile on Helicteres isora

Dicaeum is a genus of birds in the flowerpecker family, a group of passerines tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The genus is closely related to the genus Prionochilus and forms a monophyletic group.[1][2]

Its members are very small, stout, often brightly coloured birds, 10 to 18 cm in length, with short tails, short thick curved bills and tubular tongues. The latter features reflect the importance of nectar in the diet of many species, although berries, spiders and insects are also taken.

2-4 eggs are laid, typically in a purse-like nest suspended from a tree.

Species in taxonomic order

References

  1. ↑ Nyária, Árpád S.; Peterson, A. Townsend; Rice, Nathan H.; Moyle, Robert G. (2009). "Phylogenetic relationships of flowerpeckers (Aves: Dicaeidae): Novel insights into the evolution of a tropical passerine clade". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 53 (3): 613–19. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2009.06.014. PMID 19576993.
  2. ↑ "Notes on flowerpeckers (Aves, Dicaeidae). 2, The primitive species of the genus Dicaeum. American Museum novitates ; no. 1991". American Museum Novitates. 1991. 1960. hdl:2246/3544.
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