Sooty-capped bush tanager
| Sooty-capped bush tanager | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | see text |
| Genus: | Chlorospingus |
| Species: | C. pileatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Chlorospingus pileatus Salvin, 1864 | |
The sooty-capped bush tanager (Chlorospingus pileatus) is a small passerine bird traditionally placed in the family Thraupidae, but perhaps closer to Arremonops in the Emberizidae. This bird is an endemic resident breeder in the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama.
The sooty-capped bush tanager is found in mossy mountain forests, second growth and adjacent bushy clearings, typically from 1600 m altitude to above the timberline. The bulky cup nest is built on bank, in a dense bush, or hidden amongst epiphytes up to 11 m high in a tree. The normal clutch is two pink-brown eggs marked with white.
The adult sooty-capped bush tanager is 13.5 cm long and weighs 20g. The adult has a blackish head with a white supercilium and a grey throat. It has olive upperparts and yellow underparts, becoming white on the belly. Some individuals in the Irazu-Turrialba area are greyer and lack yellow in the underparts. Immatures are browner-headed, duller below, and have a duller olive-tinged supercilium. This species is easily distinguished from common bush tanager by its blacker head and obvious supercilium.
Sooty-capped bush tanagers occur in small groups, or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock. This species feeds on insects, spiders and small fruits.
The sooty-capped bush tanager's call is a high tseet tseet, and the song is a scratchy seechur seechur see see seechur seechur with variations.
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Chlorospingus pileatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4