Guira Tanager
Hemithraupis guira
Small attractive tanager, widespread and fairly common in lowlands and foothills. Male unmistakable: mostly olive above with black mask bordered by yellow, orange breast and rump, and grayish flanks. Female mostly dull yellowish and potentially confusing, especially compared with female Yellow-backed Tanager. Note pale eyebrow and vague dark line through the eye, yellowish bill, and paler grayish flanks. Usually seen in pairs, often with a mixed-species flock. Forages actively in the canopy or middle levels of forests, edges, gardens, and second growth.
Taxonomy
The guira tanager was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla guira. Linnaeus based his description on the "Guira-guaça beraba" that had been described by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in 1648 in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. The specific epithet guira is a Guaraní word meaning "bird". The type locality is the state of Pernambuco in eastern Brazil. The guira tanager is now placed in the genus Hemithraupis that was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis.<p>Eight subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Hemithraupis guira
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Hemithraupis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Band-tailed Pigeon
Patagioenas fasciata
Large dove found in mature montane forests from the western U.S. and Canada into Middle and South America. Soft blue-gray above and unique purplish-gray below, with white crescent on the nape. Yellow feet. Bill is yellow with black tip in northern populations, all yellow in southern ones. Forms large flocks in coniferous forests and montane areas where it feeds on seeds and fruits. When it takes off, wings make loud clapping sound.
Marquesan Ground Dove
Pampusana rubescens
A rotund, short-legged ground-dwelling dove that usually runs rather than flies when startled. Slate-gray belly contrasts with paler gray chest and head, and with purplish shoulders and back. No similar species occur in its range. Apparently rarely vocal, but has been heard giving a snarling sound.
Gorgeted Woodstar
Chaetocercus heliodor
Woodstars are tiny hummingbirds that fly like bumblebees. Gorgeted Woodstar is found in the subtropical and temperate zone of the Andes from Venezuela to Ecuador, where it inhabits cloud forest, edges, and second growth. Males are deep emerald-green (more of a bluish tone than other woodstars) with a glittering wine-colored throat and white patches on the sides of the rump. Females are trickier; note the rufous rump and tail with a black band at the base, extremely small size, short tail, and buffy infusion on the throat. On both sexes, bill often appears slightly decurved, more than other woodstars. Sometimes seen singly feeding in the canopy or at lower patches of flowers. Visits feeders.
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