From Opus

Revision as of 02:03, 13 August 2012

Male of Northern group
Photo by peterday
Madera Canyon, Arizona, USA, July 2011

Piranga flava

Includes: Tooth-billed Tanager; Red Tanager

Identification

Female of Northern group
Photo by Lisa W
Huachuca Canyon, Arizona, USA, May 2008

20cm (8").

• Male: dark red to orange-red, grey wash on back and flanks. Grey-red cheek patch. Heavy, slightly hooked, and dark bill.
• Female: olive-green upperparts and yellow-orange underparts with grey wash on flanks.
• Juvenile: paler underparts, brown streaks, and buff-gray wing-bars.
  

Variation: males of the Highland Hepatic Tanager group have a two-toned bill, dark upper and yellow lower mandible; in Lowland Hepatic Tanager, the lower mandible is grey vs black for upper. The three forms also differ in the tone of the red in males, as seen in the images.

Distribution

Male of Highland group showing the typical two-toned bill
Photo by Aralcal
Aralcal, Colombia, January 2009

North America, Central America, and South America.
In the U.S.A, summers in Arizona and New Mexico. These and populations in northern Mexico mostly migrate south to an area from southern Mexico to Guatemala. Populations breeding in Guatemala and Belize and south through Central and South America are resident. In western and northern South America, they primarily are found in highlands of Trinidad, Venezuela, The Guianas, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. A separate form is found mainly in lowlands of They Guianas, Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, north eastern Argentina and Uruguay.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Several subspecies exists^[1]. These fall into three main groups that sometimes are considered separate species: The Northern Hepatic Tanager (P. hepatica - first five subspecies in the list), the Highland Hepatic Tanager (P. lutea - subspecies 6-11 in the list) and the Lowland Hepatic Tanager (P. flava - last four subspecies):
Northern Group

• P.f. hepatica: South-western US and western Mexico (south to Guerrero and Oaxaca)
• P.f. dextra: South-western US (east of Rockies) and eastern Mexico; winters to western Guatemala
• P.f. figlina: Lowland pine savanna of eastern Guatemala and Belize
• P.f. savannarum: Lowland pine savanna of eastern Honduras and north-eastern Nicaragua
• P.f. albifacies: Montane oak-pine belt of western Guatemala to northern Nicaragua
  

Highland Group

• P.f. testacea: Subtropical Costa Rica and Panama (east to Cape Gararchiné)
• P.f. desidiosa: Upper tropical and subtropical south-western Colombia
• P.f. lutea: Extreme south-western Colombia to western Ecuador, Peru and north-western Bolivia

Male of Lowland group showing paler red and also a two-toned bill
Photo by Rogerio Araújo Dias
Brasilia, Brazil

• P.f. haemalea: Mountains of southern Venezuela, western Guyana and extreme northern Brazil
• P.f. faceta: Mountains of northern Colombia and northern Venezuela; winters to Trinidad
• P.f. toddi: Western slope of Eastern Andes of Colombia (Magdalena)
  

Lowland Group

• P.f. macconnelli: Southern Guyana and adjacent extreme northern Brazil
• P.f. saira: Eastern Brazil (Amazon to Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul)
• P.f. rosacea: Eastern Bolivia (Santa Cruz to Chiquitos)
• P.f. flava: Southern Bolivia (Cochabamba) to Uruguay and northern Argentina

Habitat

Female of Lowland group
Photo by jarbas mattos
Campos do Jordão, Brazil March 2011

Open pine and pine-oak forests, often near water.

Behaviour

Diet includes insects, figs, ripe guavas, and other fruits.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
2. Ber van Perlo. 2009. A field guide to the Birds of Brazil. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7
3. Kenefick, Restall, Hayes, 2007. Field guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13557-2
4. Howell & Webb, 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198540124

External Links