Shining Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes lucidus) [XC404235]
by Mike Nelson from Monta\u00f1a de Agalta , Sector El Murmullo-Las Delicias , Departamento de Olancho, Honduras (call)
Shining Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes lucidus) [XC59514]
by Ken Allaire from Parque Metropolitano, Panama City, Panama (call)
Subspecies
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. Thought to form a superspecies with Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus) and in the past sometimes treated as conspecific, but the two are sympatric in extreme eastern Panama and adjacent north-western Colombia.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
lucidus (Sclater & Salvin, 1859) - Foothills of Gulf-Caribbean slope of southern Mexico (eastern Chiapas) through north-central Guatemala, Belize (Cockscomb Mts) and northern Honduras to north-eastern Nicaragua.
isthmicus Bangs, 1907 - Costa Rica (entire eastern slope, and Pacific slope in San José) south to eastern Panama and adjacent extreme north-western Colombia.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet