Carmiol's Tanager
Chlorothraupis carmioli
Large and chunky with stout dark bill. Nondescript plumage: entirely olive-green with slightly brighter yellowish throat and upper breast. Sexes alike. Compare with female Red-throated Ant-Tanager, which is somewhat more slender and longer-tailed, has a more contrasting pale throat, and paler legs. Found in lowlands and foothills, where small flocks move through lower and middle levels of humid forests. Often in mixed feeding flocks with other species. Occurs from eastern Honduras to extreme northwestern Colombia. Listen for its loud, fast, long-winded song of whistles and chips, along with grating squeaky scold calls.
Identification
The adult Carmiol's tanager is about 17 cm (6.7 in) long and is an evenly coloured, robust bird. The upper parts are a dull olive green, and the underparts are a rather paler olive green. The throat is slightly yellower than the rest of the underparts, and is streaked in the male while being a uniform pale yellow in the female. The underparts of the female are paler than those of the male, and the female has a yellowish patch in front of the eyes. The beak is relatively stout and is dark-coloured in both sexes. The lemon-spectacled tanager looks similar, apart from its yellow facial markings, but does not share the same range as the olive tanager. Also similar is the ochre-breasted tanager (Chlorothraupis stolzmanni) but again the ranges do not overlap.
Taxonomy
Carmiol's tanager was formally described in 1868 by the American ornithologist George Newbold Lawrence from a specimen collected in Costa Rica. He coined the binomial name Phoenicothraupis carmioli. Carmiol's tanager is now one of four species placed in the genus Chlorothraupis that was introduced in 1863 by Osbert Salvin and Frederick DuCane Godman. The common name and the specific epithet commemorate Franz Carmiol, the son of a German immigrant to Nicaragua, who had collected the specimen for the Smithsonian Institution. The genus was at one time placed in the tanager family Thraupidae but was moved to the cardinal family Cardinalidae based on molecular evidence. Carmiol's tanager was formerly treated as conspecific with the yellow-lored tanager (Chlorothraupis frenata).<p>Three subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Chlorothraupis carmioli
- Authority
- (Lawrence, 1868)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cardinalidae
- Genus
- Chlorothraupis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Carmiol's tanager is a gregarious bird and often forms noisy groups of a few dozen birds, sometimes including birds of other species such as the tawny-crested tanager (Tachyphonus delatrii). In Panama a typical call is a repeated "zhwek-zhwek-zhwek", this being repeated several times before going on to a different phrase.<p>It feeds on small insects such as beetles, cockroaches and crickets, supplementing these with berries. Breeding takes place between March and May and the nest is a cup-shaped construction of plant fibres and mosses.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Skulking and generally inconspicuous brown bird of humid tropical forest. Found as singles or pairs, clambering in vine tangles or other dense understory, at times in leaf litter on the forest floor; usually difficult to see clearly. Note the rich buffy throat, broad eyebrow, and the dark rusty tail on an otherwise dark brownish bird. Loud song is a repeated, churring rattle, given from middle level perches inside the forest.
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Large, mostly white stork with a distinctive yellow bill and bright red facial skin. It is more tied to wetland habitats than most other storks, and it forages with its bill partially submerged and open, stirring up prey in muddy pools with its feet. When it encounters prey it snaps its bill closed. It is a resident and partial migrant throughout its range, and although not particularly gregarious, it will congregate when food is abundant. The similar White Stork has a white (not black) tail, and it lacks the red facial skin and yellow bill of the Yellow-billed Stork.
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