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Dicaeum is a genus of birds in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae, a group of passerines tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The genus Dicaeum is closely related to the genus Prionochilus and forms a monophyletic group.[1][2]
Its members are very small, stout, often brightly coloured birds, 10 to 18 cm in length, with short tails, short thick curved bills and tubular tongues. The latter features reflect the importance of nectar in the diet of many species, although berries, spiders and insects are also taken.
2-4 eggs are laid, typically in a purse-like nest suspended from a tree.
The genus Dicaeum was introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816.[3] The name is from the Ancient Greek dikaion. Cuvier claimed that this was a word for a very small Indian bird mentioned by the Roman author Claudius Aelianus but the word probably referred instead to the scarab beetle Scarabaeus sacer.[4] The type species was designated as the scarlet-backed flowerpecker by George Robert Gray in 1840.[5][6]
The genus contains the following species:[7]
Pale-billed flowerpecker Dicaeum erythrorhynchos with a Muntingia calabura berry (Hyderabad, India) Thick-billed flowerpecker Dicaeum agile on Helicteres isora Dicaeum is a genus of birds in the flowerpecker family Dicaeidae, a group of passerines tropical southern Asia and Australasia from India east to the Philippines and south to Australia. The genus Dicaeum is closely related to the genus Prionochilus and forms a monophyletic group.
Its members are very small, stout, often brightly coloured birds, 10 to 18 cm in length, with short tails, short thick curved bills and tubular tongues. The latter features reflect the importance of nectar in the diet of many species, although berries, spiders and insects are also taken.
2-4 eggs are laid, typically in a purse-like nest suspended from a tree.
