Golden-browed Chlorophonia

The blue-crowned chlorophonia is a chunky, short-tailed, stubby-billed bird. It is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs about 24 g (0.85 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males have pale violet-blue crown and nape, under the crown a golden-yellow forehead and wide supercilium, and a turquoise eye-ring. The rest of their face, their throat, and their upper breast are emerald-green. They have a thin turquoise collar under the nape and a thin black and chestnut line under the upper breast. Their upperparts are same shiny green as their face. The upper side of their tail is green and the underside gray. Most flight feathers are blackish with green edges; their tertials are mostly green with some dusky. Their lower breast, belly, and undertail coverts are bright yellow and their sides and flanks green. Adult females have a yellow forehead, a light blue central crown and nape, and a thin blue-violet collar. The rest of their face, their throat, their upperparts, and their uppertail coverts are shiny green. Their tail is blackish with wide green feather edges. Their flight feathers are blackish with green edges. The center of their breast and belly and their undertail coverts are yellow and the rest of their underparts are green. Both sexes have a brown iris, a dusky maxilla with a gray base, a gray mandible with a dusky tip, and dark gray legs and feet.

The golden-browed chlorophonia is found along the mountain ranges for the length of Costa Rica and into western Panama's Chiriquí and Veruagas provinces. It primarily inhabits the interior and edges of evergreen forest in the upper tropical and subtropical zones. It favors trees heavy with moss and epiphytes. Overall it ranges in elevation from 750 to 2,500 m (2,500 to 8,200 ft) but in Costa Rica is found from 1,000 m (3,300 ft) to treeline.

The golden-browed chlorophonia feeds almost exclusively on fruit but includes small numbers of insects in its diet. It favors the berries of mistletoe (Loranthaceae) and other small berries; it also consumes figs. It forages mostly in the forest canopy. During the breeding season it usually forages in pairs. Outside that season it may gather in small flocks of up to about 12 individuals. Though the species may share fruiting trees with other species, it only occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks.