Dacnis


Dacnis is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae.
These are highly sexually dichromatic species with bright blue males and green females. They have various bill types and many of them feed on nectar.

Taxonomy and species list

The genus Dacnis was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier with the blue dacnis as the type species. The name is from the Ancient Greek daknis, an unidentified bird from Egypt listed by Hesychius of Alexandria and Sextus Pompeius Festus. This genus is placed together with the genera Tesina and Cyanerpes in the subfamily Dacninae.
The genus contains ten species:
ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Dacnis berlepschiScarlet-breasted dacnisColombia and Ecuador
Dacnis venustaScarlet-thighed dacnisCosta Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama.
Dacnis cayanaBlue dacnisNicaragua to Panama, on Trinidad, and in South America south to Bolivia and northern Argentina
Dacnis flaviventerYellow-bellied dacnisAmazonian regions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil; also the eastern Orinoco River region of Venezuela.
Dacnis hartlaubiTurquoise dacnisColombia.
Dacnis lineataBlack-faced dacnisAmazon and the Chocó-Magdalena.
Dacnis egregiaYellow-tufted dacnisColombia and Ecuador
Dacnis viguieriViridian dacnisColombia and Panama.
Dacnis nigripesBlack-legged dacnisBrazil.
Dacnis albiventrisWhite-bellied dacnisBrazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.