Dacnis berlepschi
The Scarlet-breasted Dacnis (Dacnis berlepschi) is a dazzling jewel of the humid tropical forests of northwestern South America, renowned for its striking sexual dimorphism. Males are instantly recognizable by their brilliant, iridescent sky-blue crown, nape, shoulders, rump, and undertail coverts, sharply contrasted by a velvety black throat, face, back, wings, and central breast. The species' namesake, a fiery scarlet patch, adorns the lower breast and belly, making it an unforgettable sigh...
Found primarily in humid lowland and foothill evergreen forests, forest edges, and shade coffee or cacao plantations, typically at elevations below 800 meters (2,600 feet), occasionally up to 1,000 meters.
Feeds predominantly on nectar from various flowering plants, small berries and other fruits, and gleans small insects from leaves and branches.
Scarlet-breasted Dacnis are active, diurnal birds, often observed foraging solitarily or in pairs, though they frequently join mixed-species flocks, particularly with other tanagers and honeycreepers, moving through the forest canopy and subcanopy. Their foraging strategy involves agile gleaning ...
The Scarlet-breasted Dacnis possesses an exceptionally restricted geographical distribution, being endemic to a narrow strip of humid lowland and foothill forest along the Pacific slope of southwestern Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. Its range in Colombia is confined to the Nariño department, ...
Vulnerable
- This species is a true specialist, endemic to an extremely narrow strip of humid forest along the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador. - The male's scarlet breast is so vibrant that it's often described as a 'flame-red' or 'fiery' patch against its iridescent blue and black plumage. - Its sci...