Golden-naped Tanager
Chalcothraupis ruficervix
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.
Identification
Golden-naped tanagers have plumage similar to those of the metallic-green tanager, the swallow tanager and the blue-and-black tanager as adults of all three species are primarily blue with black facial masking, however, the golden-naped tanager is the only primarily blue tanager with a golden or reddish crown patch or nape. Females have a similar pattern to males, but have duller colors and a narrower nape patch. Juveniles of both genders have a primarily dull blue-gray coloration with a lighter breast and belly, and lack the distinctive golden nape.
Taxonomy
The golden-naped tanager was illustrated by the French naturalists Florent Prévost and Marc Athanase Parfait Oeillet Des Murs in 1842. They coined the binomial name Tanagra ruficervix. The type locality is Bogotá in Colombia. The specific epithet combines the Latin rufus meaning "red" and cervix meaning "nape". A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tangara was polyphyletic and in the rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, the golden-naped tanager was moved to the resurrected genus Chalcothraupis. The genus had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1851 with the golden-naped tanager as the type species. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek khalkos meaning "bronze" and thraupis, an unidentified small bird.<p>Six subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Chalcothraupis ruficervix
- Authority
- (Prévost & des Murs, 1842)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Chalcothraupis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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