Bulletin 237 - Best of 10 years - Tanagers

The tanager family (thraupidae) is a large New World family of 368 species. Many of them are brightly colored and most are in the tropics. The famous Darwin's 'finches' of the Galapagos are also tanagers. Unfortunately, except for a couple of vagrants, there are no longer any tanager family birds in North America, as the Scarlet, Summer and Western Tanagers have been reclassified and placed in the cardinal family.

These photos have been taken over the past 2 years in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Caribbean. The Crimson-collared Tanager is perhaps my favorite of the tanager photos.

Crimson-collared Tanager - male

The Blue-Gray Tanager is found widely in the tropics and most birders have seen it. It is also readily attracted to banana feeders.

Blue-gray Tanager

Another blue one is the Masked Flowerpiercer. He is distinctive with his red eye and black mask.

Masked Flowerpiercer - male

The Red-legged Honeycreeper is an even brighter blue. This is another very common bird in the tropics.

Red-legged Honeycreeper - male

Among yellow birds, the Saffron Finch is a bird of South America, but it has also been introduced in Hawaii where this photo was taken.

Saffron Finch - male

The Golden Tanager is another South American bird. 

Golden Tanager

The Silver-throated Tanager is yellow with a silver throat and black streaking on the back.

Silver-throated Tanager

The male Green Honeycreeper is almost iridescent. The black face and yellow bill confirm the ID. The birds in Ecuador like this one are more a blue-green then green.

Green Honeycreeper - male

The Green-and-gold Tanager is mostly green bodied with black streaking.

Green-and-gold Tanager

The Bay-headed Tanager is a sentimental favorite of mine. On my first trip to Costa Rica in 1994, it was one of the birds on the cover of the Costa Rica bird book, so I was familiar with the colors. On the first morning of the trip, we drove to a national park and the first bird I saw when I stepped out of the van was one of these!

Bay-headed Tanager

Lastly is the Hispaniolan Spindalis. This is one of 4 Caribbean species that was split from what was known as the Stripe-headed Tanager until the split about 15 years ago. I got a nice photo with him eating a berry.

Hispaniolan Spindalis - male

I hope that everyone gets a chance to visit the tropics and see some of these beautiful birds.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald

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Bulletin 214 - Dominican Republic #6 - tanagers, hummingbirds, finch and lizards

There are 5 endemic tanagers in Hispaniola. The Black-crowned Tanager (Phaenicophilus palmarum) is also known as the Black-crowned Palm-Tanager. It has a black and white face and head, olive wings and tail and gray breast. I saw it several times.

Black-crowned Tanager

There is a Gray-crowned tanager but it is resident in Haiti only so wasn't seen on this trip.

The male Hispaniolan Spindalis (Spindalis dominicensis) has black head with white stripes and orange  on the breast.

Hispaniolan Spindalis - male

The female spindalis is olive above and gray below. She has some white stripes on the head as well.

Hispaniolan Spindalis - female

The other two are Eastern and Western Chat-Tanagers. I saw one of them but couldn't get a photo and missed the opportunity to look for the other as the roads were washed out.

There are 2 endemic cuckoos on the island, Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo and Bay-breasted Cuckoo. I saw them both, but only got a photo of the Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo (Saurothera longirostris). It is a large 18" bird with striped tail, rusty throat and belly and red eye ring. Unmistakable.

Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo

I was able to photograph all 3 hummingbirds on the island. The Antillean Mango (Anthrocorax dominicus) is a 5" hummer with curved beak. The female, here, is green above and gray below. It is found only on Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Hispaniola.

Antillean Mango - female

The Vervain Hummingbird (Mellisuga minima) is a tiny 2.5" hummer found here and Jamaica. It is the same genus as the Bee Hummingbird of Cuba which is the smallest bird in the world. This guy sits prominently on the top of trees and looks more the size of an insect. It is just green above, with a gray throat and green flanks in both sexes. The male here has a notched tail.

Vervain Hummingbird - male

The last is the endemic Hispaniolan Emerald (Chlorostilbon swainsonii). The male here is green all over with a bright green throat.

Hispaniolan Emerald - male

The last bird is the Antillean Euphonia (Euphonia musica). This small (4.75") colorful finch is found from Hispaniola to Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. The male has orange underparts, black face and blue crown. This was my 800th bird to photograph.

Antillean Euphonia - male

The female is similar but she has yellow underparts.

Antillean Euphonia - female

I also found a couple on small endemic lizards. The first is the Southern Green Anole. It is similar to the Green Anole in USA except for the white line along the throat.

Southern Green Anole

The other was a reddish lizard whose name I have not been able to discover.

Red Lizard - Hispaniola

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald

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