Fulvous-crested Tanager
Tachyphonus surinamus
An uncommon tanager of lowland and foothill rainforest. Male is black with orange flanks, white tufts around the edges of the wings, and yellow or orange crown and rump. Female is yellow-olive with a gray crown and white or yellowish throat; some females have a broken yellow eyering. Usually found in pairs that forage in lower to middle levels of the forest, sometimes with mixed-species flocks.
Identification
The fulvous-crested tanager (Tachyphonus surinamus) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the fulvous-crested tanager in the supplement to his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected Suriname. He used the French name Le merle de Surinam and the Latin name Merula surinamensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson in his Ornithologie. One of these was the fulvous-crested tanager. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Turdus surinamus and cited Brisson's work. The present genus Tachyphonus was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816. There are four subspecies.
- Scientific name
- Tachyphonus surinamus
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Tachyphonus
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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Small, stunning tanager mostly turquoise blue with a buffy vent. Look for black face and small buffy-orange patch on rear crown. Sexes alike. Usually found in pairs, often following a mixed-species flock in the canopy. An Andean species, found in subtropical forests, edges, and gardens. Visits fruit feeders.
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