5oo 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA — PART 4 



14. Undersurface streaked blue, green, and yellow. 



female Purple Honeycreeper, Cyanerpes caeruleus chocoanus. p. 511 

 Undersurface unstreaked or very faintly streaked 15 



15. Bright green, underwing coverts gray. 



female Green Honeycreeper, Chlorophanes spiza arguta. p. 516 

 Dull green 16 



16. Underwing coverts yellow. 



female Red-legged Honeycreeper, Cyanerpes cyaneus carneipes. p. 513 

 Underwing coverts dingy white. 



female Viridian Dacnis, Dacnis viguieri. p. 521 



COEREBA FLAVEOLA (Linnaeus): Bananaquit, Mielero Platanero 



Figure 38 



Certhia flaveola Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, p. 119. (Jamaica.) 



Very small; bill decurved; superciliary extending to nape white; rest 

 of upper surface black or dark gray; throat light gray; rest of under- 

 surface yellow. 



Description. — Length 88-101 mm. Adult (sexes alike), superciliary 

 extending to nape white; crown, lores, and auriculars black or dark 

 gray; back dark gray; upper tail coverts yellow; wings dark gray to 

 blackish, with white at base of outer web of outer primaries; tail dark 

 gray to blackish, outer feathers tipped white on underside; throat light 

 gray; undertail coverts whitish; rest of undersurface yellow; edge of 

 wing yellow; underwing coverts white. 



Immature, gray and black of upper surface replaced by dingy olive; 

 undersurface dull greenish yellow. 



The Bananaquit is a common and adaptable bird found through most 

 of the more humid lowlands and foothills of Panama. Its dependence 

 on flower nectar as a source of food limits its distribution in the drier 

 regions, such as the Pacific slope lowlands from the eastern side of the 

 Azuero Peninsula to the Pacific side of the Canal Zone and Panama 

 City area, where it is absent or found only in very small numbers, and 

 may be seasonal (Ridgely, 1976, p. 287) . Its total range is very large, 

 from southeastern Mexico to northern Bolivia, Paraguay, and north- 

 eastern Argentina, and the West Indies except for Cuba. Forty-one 

 races are currently recognized (Lowery and Monroe, Check-list Birds 

 World, vol. 14, 1968, pp. 87-93), of which 3 are found in Panama: 

 mexicana, in Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, and islands off the Pacific coast 

 of Veraguas; cerinoclunis on the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama, 

 and colombiana, from mainland Veraguas and Isla Cebaco east through 



