The familar birds in North America called tanagers (scarlet, summer, western, hepatic) are no longer in this family, but were moved to the cardinal family. Also, another that we photographed in Panama is now moved to the sparrow family and we will see it in a later bulletin.
Not all tanagers are brightly colored as we saw with the Puerto Rican Tanager last year. I will start with the dull ones and work to the more colorful. The sexes are similar unless noted.
The Plain-colored Tanager (Tangara inornata) is a 4.5" plain gray bird with dark wings and a blue shoulder patch that is usually hidden when the bird is perched. One can just get a peek at the blue shoulder patch in this photo.
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| Plain-colored Tanager |
The White-lined Tanager male is black with a slender white line through the wing. The female is rufous colored and lacks the line on the shoulder and to my mind is prettier.
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| White-lined Tanager - female |
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| White-shouldered Tanager |
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| Sulphur-rumped Tanager |
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| Sulphur-rumped Tanager |
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| Flame-rumped Tanager - female |
Seedeaters are a single genus, sporophila, with 33 species in Latin America. They are also included in the tanager family. We photographed 3 species.
As these are tiny 3.5" to 4" somewhat plain birds, I will just give you the link to the photos as this bulletin is very long anyway.
The Variable Seedeater (Sporophila americana) is 4". The male is black with a white rump and belly. The female is dull ochre.
The Ruddy-breasted Seedeater (Sporophils minuta) is 3.5". The male is brown with a ruddy underparts. The female is plain brown.
The Yellow-bellied Seedeater (Sporophila nigricollis) is also 4". The male has a black face and throat, olive back and yellowish belly. The female is plain brown.
The 3.5" Yellow-faced Grassquit (Tiaris olivaceus) is an olive bird with the male showing black and yellow facial pattern. I had photographed this species in Texas in 2011 when one showed up near Corpus Christi on the Texas coast.
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| Yellow-faced Grassquit - male |
The female lacks the black and has just a little yellow on the face.
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| Yellow-faced Grassquit - female |
The male Blue Dacnis (Dacnis cayana) is a small (4.5") turquoise bird with a black back, red eye and pink legs. We didn't see the female, but she is green.
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| Blue Dacnis - male |
A close relative is the Red-legged Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes cyaneus). The breeding male of this small (4.5") species is royal blue with a turquoise crown, black wings, tail and back, and bright red legs. The female and non breeding males are dull greenish. Fortunately we saw the glorious breeding plumaged male.
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| Red-legged Honeycreeper - breeding male |
Another day we saw a tree full of pink blossoms and these birds were feasting on the nectar.
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| Red-legged Honeycreeper - breeding male |
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| Green Honeycreeper - female |
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| Crimson-backed Tanager - male |
The female is duller, but still crazy colored. I think she is prettier than any female bird in the USA or Canada.
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| Crimson-backed Tanager - female |
The last morning we went into a park on the mountain top that connects parks on the Pacific slope to those on the Atlantic slope. It was windy, cold, foggy and raining. We saw 2 tangara species.
This is the 5" Bay-headed Tanager (Tangara gyrola) . The picture is fuzzy, but for me it is a special bird. It is on the cover of the Costa Rica bird book, and was the first bird I saw in Costa Rica in my 1994 trip. I yelled out to the group "There's the bird on the cover!" I was so excited to see it so soon. It has turquoise underparts, green back and chestnut head.
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| Bay-headed Tanager |
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| Emerald Tanager |
Happy birding and photography,
David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com
photos copyright 2006 - 2014 David McDonald
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