Silver-beaked Tanager - BirdForum Opus

Adult male, nominate subspecies
Photo © by charelli
Suriname, 17 November 2010

Ramphocelus carbo

Identification

Adult female, subspecies connectens
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Cock of the Rock Lodge, Challabamba, Parque Nacional del Manu, Cusco Department, Peru, 5 September 2018

16–17 cm (6¼-6¾ in)
Broad lower mandible silvery white.
Male looks mostly crimson black with contrasting white bill; deep velvety black above slightly glossed maroon; throat and upper breast dark crimson becoming deep black on lower underparts. Or blackish maroon above, brighter crimson below (venezuelensis).
Female: dull reddish brown above; brighter and redder on rump; underparts maroon brown; bill blackish.

Distribution

South America: found in Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, central Brazil, Suriname and on Trinidad.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Subspecies magnirostris
Photo © by DABS
Asa Wright Nature Centre, Arima, Trinidad, 2 May 2017

There are 8 subspecies^[1]:

• R. c. unicolor:

• East base of East Andes of Colombia (Cundinamarca and Meta)

• R. c. magnirostris:

• Trinidad; single specimen from north-eastern Venezuela (Sucre)

• R. c. carbo:

• South East Colombia to the [Guianas]], eastern Peru and northern Brazil

• R. c. venezuelensis :

• Colombia and western Venezuela

• R. c. capitalis:

• North East Venezuela (north-eastern Anzoátegui to south-eastern Monagas, Delta Amacuro)

• R. c. connectens:

• South East Peru (Cuzco) to north-western Bolivia (Río Beni)

• R. c. atrosericeus:

• North and eastern Bolivia

• R. c. centralis:

• East-central Brazil and adjacent eastern Paraguay

Habitat

Male in threat display, subspecies connectens
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Cock of the Rock Lodge, Challabamba, Parque Nacional del Manu, Cusco Department, Peru, 5 September 2018

Shrubby borders at forest edges, overgrown clearings, second growth, garden shrubs. At heights up to 1200m.

Behaviour

Breeding

They construct a bulky, cup-shaped nest in a bush. The clutch consists of 2 greenish-blue eggs with blackish-brown botches; they are incubated by the female for 11-12 days, and the chicks fledge after another 11-12 days.

Diet

The diet consists of arthropods and fruit; also flowers occasionally (maybe for nectar). Visits feeders.

Vocalisation

Noisy.
Common call a loud chink; also a more musical zweep

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Hilty, S. (2019). Silver-beaked Tanager (Ramphocelus carbo). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/61628 on 14 July 2019).
3. Silver-beaked Tanager (Ramphocelus carbo), In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/sibtan2

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Silver-beaked Tanager. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Silver-beaked_Tanager

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