White-bellied Tanager
Tangara brasiliensis
Endemic to southeastern Brazil. Striking tanager found in the canopy in forest, edges, plantations, and gardens. Mostly seen in pairs or small single-species groups. Depending on the light can look quite dark, but has a mostly blue head and breast with black on the crown and around the bill, and blue flanks with black spots. Upperparts are mostly black with some blue highlights. White belly. The call is a series of high-pitched “psii” notes.
Identification
Adult birds are 14 cm (5.5 in) long. They are long-tailed and with a dark stout pointed bill. The adult is mainly dark blue and black, with turquoise edging to the primaries. It differs from the turquoise tanager in that it is larger, has an overall more silvery blue plumage, blue edging to the primaries and a white belly. The song is a fast squeaky chatter tic-tic-tic-tic-tic.
Taxonomy
The turquoise tanager was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tanagra brasiliensis. His description was based on Mathurin Jacques Brisson's Le tangara blue de Brésil that Brisson had described and illustrated in 1760. The type locality is Rio de Janeiro. The white-bellied tanager is now placed in the genus Tangara that was introduced by Brisson.<p>The white-bellied tanager was formerly treated as a subspecies of the turquoise tanager (Tangara mexicana).
- Scientific name
- Tangara brasiliensis
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Tangara
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
It occurs in forest, woodland and cultivation. The bulky cup nest is built in a tree or shrub, and the female incubates three brown-blotched grey-green eggs.<p>These are social birds usually found in groups. They eat a wide variety of fruit and also take insects and other arthropods, often gleaned from twigs.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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