Honeycreeper

Honeycreeper, common name for members of several unrelated groups of tropical American birds that share tongue and bill adaptations for feeding on nectar. The exceptionally diverse Hawaiian honeycreepers are now placed in their own subfamily of the finch family, as they are thought to have descended from a single species of cardueline finch that reached the Hawaiian Islands.

Most of the honeycreepers of the American tropics are now believed to be nectar-feeding tanagers and emberizine finches. These are generally small birds not exceeding 20 cm (8 in), with pointed, sometimes curved bills and bristle-edged tongues. The generally dull-colored flowerpiercers are placed with the emberizines, and the conebills and brightly colored species of two other genera are placed with the tanagers. The family in which honeycreepers of the American tropics were formerly classified is retained solely for the bananaquit, a small black and yellow bird of uncertain relationships.

Many species of honeycreeper have been listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Habitat loss and invasive non-native species are among the factors that threaten the survival of these birds.

Scientific classification: Hawaiian honeycreepers belong to the subfamily Drepanidinae of the family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes. The honeycreepers of the American tropics belong to the subfamily Thraupinae, of the family Emberizidae. The flowerpiercers are classified in the genus Diglossa, and the conebills in the genus Conirostrum. The two genera of brightly colored species are Dacnis and Cyanerpes. The bananaquit belongs to the family Coerebidae and is classified as Coereba flaveola.