# Dicaeum

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. Within the family Dicaeidae the genus Dicaeum is sister to a clade containing the genera Prionochilus and Pachyglossa.
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.

## Taxonomy

The genus Dicaeum was introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816. 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. The type species was designated as the scarlet-backed flowerpecker by George Robert Gray in 1840.
The genus contains the following 44 species:
* Golden-rumped flowerpecker (Dicaeum annae)
* Yellow-sided flowerpecker (Dicaeum aureolimbatum)
* Olive-capped flowerpecker (Dicaeum nigrilore)
* Yellow-crowned flowerpecker (Dicaeum anthonyi)
* Flame-crowned flowerpecker (Dicaeum kampalili)
* Bicolored flowerpecker (Dicaeum bicolor)
* Red-keeled flowerpecker (Dicaeum australe)
* Black-belted flowerpecker (Dicaeum haematostictum)
* Scarlet-collared flowerpecker (Dicaeum retrocinctum)
* Cebu flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor)
* Orange-bellied flowerpecker (Dicaeum trigonostigma)
* Buzzing flowerpecker (Dicaeum hypoleucum)
* Pale-billed flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrorhynchos)
* Nilgiri flowerpecker (Dicaeum concolor)
* Plain flowerpecker (Dicaeum minullum)
* Andaman flowerpecker (Dicaeum virescens)
* Pygmy flowerpecker (Dicaeum pygmaeum)
* Crimson-crowned flowerpecker (Dicaeum nehrkorni)
* Buru flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrothorax)
* Halmahera flowerpecker (Dicaeum schistaceiceps)
* Ashy flowerpecker (Dicaeum vulneratum)
* Olive-crowned flowerpecker (Dicaeum pectorale)
* Red-capped flowerpecker (Dicaeum geelvinkianum)
* Louisiade flowerpecker (Dicaeum nitidum)
* Red-banded flowerpecker (Dicaeum eximium)
* Midget flowerpecker (Dicaeum aeneum)
* Mottled flowerpecker (Dicaeum tristrami)
* Black-fronted flowerpecker (Dicaeum igniferum)
* Red-chested flowerpecker (Dicaeum maugei)
* Pink-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum keiense) – split from D. hirundinaceum
* Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum)
* Grey-sided flowerpecker (Dicaeum celebicum)
* Black-sided flowerpecker (Dicaeum monticolum)
* Fire-breasted flowerpecker (Dicaeum ignipectus)
* Cambodian flowerpecker (Dicaeum cambodianum) – split from D. ignipectus
* Sumatran flowerpecker (Dicaeum beccarii) – split from D. ignipectus
* Fire-throated flowerpecker (Dicaeum luzoniense) – split from D. ignipectus
* Javan flowerpecker (Dicaeum sanguinolentum) – formerly blood-breasted flowerpecker before split
* Flores flowerpecker (Dicaeum rhodopygiale) – split from D. sanguinolentum
* Sumba flowerpecker (Dicaeum wilhelminae) – split from D. sanguinolentum
* Timor flowerpecker (Dicaeum hanieli) – split from D. sanguinolentum
* Scarlet-backed flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum)
* Scarlet-headed flowerpecker (Dicaeum trochileum)
* Spectacled flowerpecker (Dicaeum dayakorum)