Bicolored Conebill

Bicolored Conebill
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Conirostrum
Species:	C. bicolor
Binomial name
Conirostrum bicolor (Vieillot, 1809)

The Bicolored Conebill, Conirostrum bicolor, is a small passerine bird. This member of the tanager family is a resident breeder in South America from Colombia, Venezuela and Trinidad south and east to the Guianas, northeast Peru and Brazil.

Its habitat is coastal mangrove swamps and neighbouring woodlands. The small feather-lined cup nest is built in a mangrove tree, and the normal clutch is two brown-blotched buff eggs. Nests are often parasitised by Shiny Cowbirds.

The Bicolored Conebill is 11.4 cm long and weighs 11 g. The adult is grey-blue above and buff-tinged grey below, with red eyes, pink legs and a sharp, pointed bill. The primary flight feathers are bluish with brown edgings. The sexes are similar, although the female may be a little duller, but immature birds are greenish above and have pale yellow underparts. Birds sometimes breed in immature plumage.

These warbler-like birds eat mainly insects and occasionally seeds. The Bicolored Conebill’s call is a thin tseep.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Conirostrum bicolor. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 5 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
• ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd edition ed.). Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2. 
• Hilty, Steven L (2003). Birds of Venezuela. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.