Flame-crested tanager

Flame-crested tanager
Male in south-eastern Brazil
Female at Restinga de Bertioga state park, São Paulo state, Brazil.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Tachyphonus
Species: T. cristatus
Binomial name
Tachyphonus cristatus
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms
  • Tachyphonus nattereri

The flame-crested tanager (Tachyphonus cristatus) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland. Ten subspecies are currently recognized.[2]

Description

T. cristatus nattereri (above)
T. luctuosus (below)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tachyphonus cristatus.

The flame-crested tanager grows to a length of about 15 cm (6 in) and a weight of around 20 g (0.7 oz). The male has a black head, small orangeish-red bib and a moderate-sized orangish crest. The upper parts are slatey-black with a golden-buff rump, and the upper wing-coverts bear a large patch of white. The underparts are dark brownish-black. The female is similar in appearance to the white-winged shrike-tanager (Lanio versicolor) but is more brown above with buff-ochre rather than yellowish-ochre underparts.[2][3]

Distribution and habitat

This species is native to lowland forest in the northern half of South America. There are two disjunct populations, the larger covering most of the Amazon Basin in Brazil, southern parts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, and eastern parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The separate part of the range is occupied by the subspecies T. c. brunneus and covers a coastal strip of Brazil from Recife to Curitiba.[1]

Status

T. cristatus is a fairly common species with a very wide range. The population has not been quantified but the trend seems steady, and the total population is presumed to be large. For these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the conservation status of the bird as being of "least concern".[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 BirdLife International (2012). "Tachyphonus cristatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) 2012: e.T22722380A39978201. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012-1.RLTS.T22722380A39978201.en.
  2. 1 2 Hilly, S. (2011). "Flame-crested Tanager (Tachyphonus cristatus)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Ridgely, Robert S.; Guy, Tudor (1989). The Birds of South America: Volume 1: The Oscine Passerines. University of Texas Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-292-70756-6.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 10, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.