- Tangara guttata
Identification
12 cm (4¾ in)
- Green overall plumage heavily spotted with black on upperparts
- Black lores
- Yellow forehead, eyebrow and orbital area
- Black wings and tail edged with green
- Whitish underparts spotted with black
The sexes are similar.
Distribution
Central and South America: found in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia and the extreme north of Brazil.
Taxonomy
Six subspecies are recognized[1]: guttata, eusticta, tolimae, bogotensis, chrysophrys, and trinitatis.
- I. g. eusticta:
- Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and western Panama
- I. g. tolimae:
- East slope of Central Andes of Colombia (Tolima)
- I. g. bogotensis:
- Colombia (east of the Andes) and adjacent western Venezuela
- I. g. chrysophrys:
- Venezuela and extreme north-western Brazil (Sierra de Curupira)
- I. g. guttata:
- South East Venezuela (southern Bolívar) and extreme northern Brazil (Roraima)
- I. g. trinitatis:
- Mountains of northern Trinidad
Habitat
Humid montane forests, forest edges and secondary forest.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet consists mainly of both large and small fruits with the addition of some arthropods.
Breeding
They construct a small cup nest in a tree. The clutch contains 2 white eggs with brown blotches; they are incubated by the female for 13 days to hatching, with another 15 days before the chicks fledge.
Vocalisation
The flight call is a weak, metallic, chirping tsip.
References
- 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/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved April 2019)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2021) Speckled Tanager. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 April 2021 from https://www.birdforum.net/wiki/Speckled_Tanager
