Black-and-yellow Tanager
Chrysothlypis chrysomelas
Small warblerlike tanager with striking color pattern: male brilliant golden-yellow with black back, wings, and tail. Female much duller and more olive-green with dirty whitish belly. Note bill shape: relatively long, slender, and pointed. A canopy bird, pairs or small groups are most often seen following mixed flocks in forests and edges.
Identification
The adult black-and-yellow tanager is about 12 centimetres (4.7 in) long and weighs 12.5 grams (0.44 oz). The adult male has a bright yellow head, rump and underparts, and a black back, wings and tail. The wing linings are white. The male of C. c. ocularis differs in having a black spot on the lores. The female has olive upperparts and yellow underparts, but in Costa Rica and extreme western Panama (the sometimes recognized C. c. titanota) the throat and lower belly is whitish. She could be mistaken for a warbler or a female yellow-backed tanager. Immatures resemble the adult female.<p>The black-and-yellow tanager's call is a scratchy single or repeated tsew, higher and faster than that of the silver-throated tanager.
Taxonomy
Most authorities recognize two subspecies: The nominate in Costa Rica and western Panama and C. c. ocularis in eastern Panama, but some recognize the population in Costa Rican and extreme western Panama as a third subspecies, C. c. titanota (then limiting the nominate to the remaining part of western Panama). Some taxonomic lists modified the original name based on gender and use the specific name of chrysomelaena and this emendation is not considered correct.
- Scientific name
- Chrysothlypis chrysomelas
- Authority
- (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1869)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Chrysothlypis
Range and habitat
In Panama it has been recorded as far east as the border-region with Colombia. In Costa Rica, the black-and-yellow tanager is found in the foothills and slopes on the Caribbean side of the central mountain ranges, typically from 600 to 1,200 metres (2,000 to 3,900 ft) altitude, and occasionally down to 400 metres (1,300 ft). In Panama, it is found on both the Caribbean and Pacific slope from 450 to 1,200 metres (1,480 to 3,940 ft). The preferred habitat is the canopy of wet forest and tall second growth, but it will feed lower at woodland edges and clearing. A family of black-and-yellow tanagers was reported in 2010 in Colombia's Chocó department, near the Panamanian border.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Black-and-yellow tanagers occur in small groups, or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock. This species feeds on small fruit, usually swallowed whole, insects and spiders.<p>The neat cup nest is built on a tree branch. The eggs are undescribed.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
White-collared Blackbird
Turdus albocinctus
This aptly-named species has a bright white collar, which is its most notable field mark. Like most other blackbirds, males are predominantly black while females are dark brown. Breeds in alpine and upper subalpine meadows, open forests, and gardens where it forages on the ground, often singly or in pairs. Sometimes descends to upper foothills in the winter.
Chestnut-backed Tanager
Stilpnia preciosa
Multicolored tanager found in humid forests including Araucaria forests and forest borders. Found in pairs or small groups and regularly accompanies mixed-species flocks. Males have a cinnamon head and back with a black mask and a straw-colored rump. They are blue-green below and have blue wings (with straw-colored coverts) and a blue tail. Males are similar to male Black-backed Tanagers, but lack the black back. Females are duller without the male’s mask and have a green back and cinnamon vent. Females are essentially identical to female Black-backed Tanagers.
Variable Oystercatcher
Haematopus unicolor
A large, stocky shorebird endemic to New Zealand. Adults vary in color from all black to pied, with a range of intermediate morphs in between. Juveniles have a dark-tipped bill, browner plumage, and gray legs. A coastal bird, breeding on sandy beaches, sand spits, rocky coasts, and occasionally the shores of coastal lakes. Will forage in paddocks. Gives a loud piping alarm call. Pied-morph birds appear similar to South Island Pied Oystercatcher (SIPO) and Chatham Oystercatcher. Adult pied-morph Variable Oystercatchers are visibly larger, with smudgy border between pied plumage on breast. Also note less white showing forward of folded wing around “shoulder.”
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