Slaty Flowerpiercer (Diglossa plumbea plumbea) - female

27 January 2009, Savegre Mountain Hotel, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica These jumpy little warbler-sized birds are not a very good subject for digiscoping. This was a lucky shot. Flowerpiercers use the little hook at the tip of the maxilla to hold the petal while they use the sharp tip of the mandible to make a hole at the base of long tubular flowers from which they "steal" the nectar. Most other birds and insects take nectar in exchange for pollinating the flowers, but these active little birds do not. They just take and never give back. :( This is the female. Males are all dark gray. This species is endemic to Costa Rica and Western Panama. Some authors lump it with the Cinnamon-bellied Flowerpiercer (Diglossa baritula) which replaces it north into Mexico. The taxonomic placement of Flowerpiercers has been varied. Historically they were included in the Honeycreepers (Coerebidae) most of which are now subsumed into the tanagers (Thraupidae). Other authors thought they were warblers (Parulidae) or sparrows (Emberizidae). The current view is that they are tanagers and are closest to a group of South American seedeaters in the genus Catamenia and the Peg-billed Finch which were formerly classified as sparrows. Panasonic DMC-LZ5 / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30X WA hand-held (no adapter)