Bulletin 415 - Colombia 2022 #12 - Tanagers - Part 2

I was planning to go to Peru in 2022 but there were riots and road closures in the areas we were planning to go. So at the last minute I went back to Colombia and saw some other places. 

Unfortunately, there was a lot of overlap, so I did not get a lot of new birds on the trip. However, many areas now have set up feeding stations and several were built for photography. I used the same guide Pablo Florez and I had my daughter with me on the trip this year.

However on the bright side, the setups for photography and the number of places that had feeders allowed me to get many improved photos of birds I had mediocre photos previously.

The tanager family (thraupidae) is another huge New World family of birds with 386 species currently. The range from the plain seedeaters to the gaudy Tangara genus of beautiful birds.

The 6.5" Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) is probably the most common tanager I have seen as I think I have seen it every trip. The range is from southern Mexico to Bolivia and Amazonia. It is also listed in Miami as an escaped cage bird. It is a beautiful bird and easily recognized. There is another variant with a white wing bar in the eastern part of the range. Maybe a split???

Blue-grey Tanager

The 6" Black-backed Bush-Tanager (Urothraupis stolzmanni) is listed as 'local and usually uncommon'. This was my second time to see it. We were on the same mountains Los Nevados.

Black-backed Bush-Tanager

The 4.5" Dull-colored Grassquit (Asemospiza obscura) is a plain grayish brown bird. The guide book says it has a pale lower mandible. So I looked online and I see some photos are like mine with an all black bill. It was IDed by my guide. It was a lifer.

Dull-colored Grassquit

Conebills are another group of tanagers. The 5.3" male Capped Conebill (Conirostrum albifrons) is a black bird with blue on the wings and a white cap.

Capped Conebill - male

The 6.8" male Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus) is a mostly red bird with a dark head and wings and a white lower mandible. This genus of tanagers is one of my favorites, as black and red colorations.

Crimson-backed Tanager - male

The 5" male Black-capped Tanager (Stilpnia heinei) is a beautiful blue and black bird that was formerly in the tangara genus. There were several 'tangara genus' tanagers moved to a different genus based on DNA studies.

Black-capped Tanager - male

The female is green with a speckled black cap.

Black-capped Tanager - female

Lastly is the beautiful 5.3" Silver-throated Tanager (Tangara icterocephala). This is another bird I remember from my first trip to Costa Rica in 1994. it is confined to the western slope of the Andes. However on an Ecuador trip, on the Amazonian slope we saw one and I photographed it. It was only the second record I could find for the Amazonian slope. It was a first at that lodge and the owner did not know what it was..hahahah

Silver-throated Tanager

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 118 of the 386 species of tanagers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2023 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 279 - Colombia #2 - Tanagers

The tanagers are a huge new world family and many are very colorful. I saw many of them on this trip to Colombia and here is the first group.

Pablo Florez, the main guide, has co-written a book where to bird in Colombia. In it, he has a list of the Top 30 Most Sought-after Birds by a group of 40 birders visiting Colombia. I saw 12 of them on the trip and got photos of 10. When I show one of these birds,  I will mention its placement on the list.

So here is the first of the top 30 birds, the elusive the 8" Tanager Finch (Oreothraupis arremonops). It is #21 of 30 on the list. We actually had a small group of 4 birds and this one sat still for many minutes allowing multiple photographs. It is rusty orange with a black head and white stripe across it. It is listed as vulnerable.

Tanager Finch

The mountain tanagers are larger tanagers usually about 7" in length. I saw 3 differernt species on the trip as almost the whole trip was in the Andes. The 7" Lacrimose Mountain Tanager (Anisognathus lacrymosus) is slate gray above and mustard yellow below and it has a yellow tear below the eye.

Lacrimose Mountain Tanager

The 7" Black-chinned Mountain Tanager (Anisognathus notabilis) has a black head with a yellow crown patch and golden underparts.

Black-chinned Mountain Tanager

The 9" Hooded Mountain Tanager (Bauthraupis montana) has a black head, yellow underparts and distinctive red eye.

Hooded Mountain Tanager

There were a couple of green colored tanagers found on the trip. The large 7" Grass-green Tanager (Chlorornis riefferii) is all green except for a chestnut face and undertail. It also has a red bill and legs.

Grass-green Tanager

The 5" Glistening-green Tanager (Chlorochrysa phoenicotis) is an oily green color with a small yellow ear patch.

Glistening-green Tanager

The ramphocelus genus of tanagers are manly black and red. The 6.5" male Flame-rumped Tanager (Ramphocelus flammigerus) is black with an orange red-rump. It is endemic to Colombia.

Flame-rumped Tanager - male

The 6.75" Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus) is mostly red with black wings.

Crimson-backed Tanager - male

I have photographs now of 97 of the 370 tanager species and you can see them all here.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2016 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.