Dacnis is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae.
These are highly sexually dichromatic species with bright blue males and green females. They have various bill types and many of them feed on nectar.
Taxonomy and species list The genus Dacnis was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier with the blue dacnis as the type species. The name is from the Ancient Greek daknis, an unidentified bird from Egypt listed by Hesychius of Alexandria and Sextus Pompeius Festus. This genus is placed together with the genera Tersina and Cyanerpes in the subfamily Dacninae.
The genus contains ten species:
Image Scientific name Common name Distribution Dacnis berlepschi Scarlet-breasted dacnis Colombia and Ecuador Dacnis venusta Scarlet-thighed dacnis Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. Dacnis cayana Blue dacnis Nicaragua to Panama, on Trinidad, and in South America south to Bolivia and northern Argentina Dacnis flaviventer Yellow-bellied dacnis Amazonian regions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil; also the eastern Orinoco River region of Venezuela. Dacnis hartlaubi Turquoise dacnis Colombia. Dacnis lineata Black-faced dacnis Amazon and the Chocó-Magdalena. Dacnis egregia Yellow-tufted dacnis Colombia and Ecuador Dacnis viguieri Viridian dacnis Colombia and Panama. Dacnis nigripes Black-legged dacnis Brazil. Dacnis albiventris White-bellied dacnis Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
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