The Feeding Ecology of Tanagers and Honeycreepers in Trinidad

Abstract

DtmiG the last 131/2 months of our 41/2-years ' residence in Trinidad (August 1960 to September 1961) we kept systematic records of the feeding behavior of the commoner tanagers and honeycreepers. By this time, besides knowing the bird species well, we had learned to identify most of the trees and shrubs, particularly those in the northern mountain range where we lived. The correct systematic treatment of the tanagers and honeycreepers is still uncertain. Formerly they were separated as Thraupidae and Coerebidae, but Beecher (1951) argued that the Coerebidae are a heterogeneous group and recommended placing Coereba and Conirostrum with the Parulidae and the others with the Thraupidae. Whatever their correct systematic arrangement, they form a natural ecological group of small to medium-sized birds of wooded habitats that take a mixed diet of insects and fruit, with some nectar. The tanagers are structurally unspecialized as a group, but the honeycreepers in beak and tongue are to some extent specialized for nectar-eating. As fruit-eaters, both tanagers and honeycreepers typically exploit the smaller, succulent fruits of trees, shrubs, and vines, and are ecologically quite distinct from the larger, specialized fruit-eating birds that exploit the larger and more nutritious fruits of palms, Lauraceae, Burseraceae, and some other tree families (Snow, 1971). They are common and conspicuous birds of the neotropical forests, where many species coexist, frequently with little obvious ecological segregation between them.