What is a Green Honeycreeper?

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Why in News?

This distinct honeycreeper discovered had male plumage on one half of its body and female coloring on the other.
This differs from the typical males of this species, which are bright blue with a black head, and the females, which are grass-green all over.
The rare phenomenon is scientifically known as bilateral gynandromorphic. It arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm.

About Green Honeycreeper

It is a small bird in the tanager family.
Scientific Name: Chlorophanes spiza
Distribution: The New World Tropics (Rainforests in Central and South America), from Mexico to Brazil.
Features:
- It is 13–14 cm long and weighs 14 to 23 grams.
- Its plumage is strikingly sexually dimorphic. The male is mainly blue-tinged green with a black head and a mostly bright yellow bill. The female is grass-green, paler on the throat, and lacks the male’s iridescence and black head.
- They are called Green Honeycreepers because the females and young birds are bright green with red eyes.
- Although males have, on average, slightly longer wings and tails than females, there is considerable variation within each sex and much overlap.
- It feeds largely on nectar, fruit, and insects and often frequents feeders supplying fruit.
Conservation Status:
- IUCN Red List: Least Concern

Q1) What are tanagers?

The tanagers comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has a Neotropical distribution and is the second-largest family of birds. It represents about 4% of all avian species and 12% of the Neotropical birds. Traditionally, the family contained around 240 species of mostly brightly colored fruit-eating birds.

Source: Extremely Rare ‘Half Female, Half Male’ Honeycreeper Snapped in Colombia