A lovely combination of vivid yellow and glossy-blue to create a stunning contrast of colors on a bird with a taste for the poisonous.

Meet the Violaceous euphonia

Photo Courtesy of Dario Sanches / CC BY-SA 2.0 The violaceous euphonia (Euphonia violacea), is a small passerine bird in the true finch family. Only 4.5 inches in length and weighing a paltry 0,5 oz, the male is a glossy blue-black color above with his forehead and lower plumage a deep golden yellow.

Photo Courtesy of Dario Sanches / CC BY-SA 2.0The female of this species is olive green on her upper parts and with a more greenish-yellow on her lower parts.

Juveniles look more like the female than the male.

Photo Courtesy of Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith/CC BY-SA 2.0These birds are resident breeders from Trinidad and Tobago, and eastern Venezuela to Paraguay down to northeastern Argentina.

Photo Courtesy of Laura Wolf/CC BY-SA 2.

0Non-migratory birds, like to inhabit forested areas, as well as citrus and cocoa plantations.

Photo Courtesy of Luiz Carlos Rocha/CC BY-SA 2.0Violaceous Euphonia likes to dine on small fruit, only occasionally taking insects. They especially like mistletoe berries, their gut being specially adapted to the poisonous berries.

Photo Courtesy of Egon Fink/CC BY-SA 2.0Nests are built in the shape of balls, usually located on banks, tree stumps, or tree cavities.

A clutch of 3 – 4 red-blotched white eggs are laid within which the female incubates on her own until they are hatched.

Members of the genus Euphonia are prized as cage birds and several are threatened by trapping, but this species benefits from its relatively inaccessible habitat.