Suriname: Honeycreeper?! (1 Viewer)

[498 Ramblin Alex]

Hi everyone. If anyone could help me identify this small bird from this bad picture I would be very grateful! I know there are several similar species, but hopefully there is enough here for a positive ID.

Alex.

 

[THE_FERN]

Hmm. This looks like a clear-cut masked tanager. However there don't seem to be any ebird records from nearby. ID features are (e.g.) blue head and wing flash, white belly. If not that, not sure: unfamiliar with the area. Had a quick canter down the Avibase list but couldn't see anything obvious. Definitely a tanager. When was this?

 

[Jacana]

Looks more like a Turquoise Tanager to me

 

[Jim M.]

Blue Dacnis would be my guess; not sure there is enough for a positive ID.

 

[Jacana]

It's a pretty straightforward Turquoise Tanager. Purplish-blue head and throat contrasting with the more turquoise blue on the wing and a lemon-yellow belly.

The patterning is wrong for Blue Dacnis (yellow belly, no black throat etc) and Masked Tanager (yellow belly, blue throat and upper breast, not black, no sign of a black mask etc). Not to mention that Masked is out of range in Suriname.

 

[498 Ramblin Alex]

Thank you everyone. Taken 3 weeks ago in the Brokopondo district maybe 800 metres from the Suriname River.

Far away and hard to identify. Thankfully we have this thread.

Alex.

 

[THE_FERN]

It's a pretty straightforward

Not really. I considered and rejected turquoise tanager because I thought the wing bar wrong and the belly white. However, turquoise is in range and the belly looks more yellow on this [a different monitor] so I agree it's the most likely option. Clearly not a honeycreeper of any description

 

[Fritz73]

Looks like a Turquoise Tanager for me

 

[Jim M.]

Blue patch on the shoulder looks too bright and wide for Turquoise Tanager. The pale "belly" could just be part of the tree or a photographic artifact--similar to the appearance of long, curved bill. (If the pale belly is an illusion, Blue Dacnis fits.) I agree it might be Turquoise Tanager, but it's not definitively identifiable as far as I'm concerned.

 

[THE_FERN]

Blue patch on the shoulder looks too bright and wide for Turquoise Tanager. The pale "belly" could just be part of the tree or a photographic artifact--similar to the appearance of long, curved bill. (If the pale belly is an illusion, Blue Dacnis fits.) I agree it might be Turquoise Tanager, but it's not definitively identifiable as far as I'm concerned.

Definitely not a dacnis. There's no long curved bill: it has something in its beak [note aparent angle: not aware of any bird with a bill like that—flamingo perhaps?]. I'm personally happy to endorse turquoise tanager despite shoulder [see my earlier comments]

 

[Butty]

Really, one can scarcely be sure of anything in this photo, so low is its quality (no offence). This thread contains some absurdly fanciful statements of supposed 'features'.

 

[kb57]

Really, one can scarcely be sure of anything in this photo, so low is its quality (no offence). This thread contains some absurdly fanciful statements of supposed 'features'.

'Absurdly fanciful' is a bit strong, no?
Looked at and enlarged on a decent quality 27 inch monitor, it is clearly a tanager of some sort, and reference to illustrations on eBird shows a decent match for Turquoise. I've zero experience of the species so don't want to comment on the specific ID, but my first thought was it looks a bit like a Golden-hooded Tanager (similar wing bar, but obviously lacking the golden hood and well out of range), so clearly possible to get in the right ballpark.
Maybe a visit to Specsavers is in order before you jump in to criticise others who are trying their best to help the OP?

 

[THE_FERN]

Really, one can scarcely be sure of anything in this photo, so low is its quality (no offence). This thread contains some absurdly fanciful statements of supposed 'features'.

People perceive the same world very differently. But here I can clearly see an eye, a dark loral area, blue wing bar and pale (either whitish or yellowish) lower belly patch. I can see the bird has something in its beak, and that it's most definitely a tanager. Most respondents agree with most of this... ...and I don't think we're suffering from collective hallucinations.

re: "absurdly fanciful": I do feel you sometimes come on a bit strong with statements like this.

 

[Butty]

I can clearly see an eye

That's a black pixel with a whitish pixel adjacent. There are such (artefact) pixels scattered over the head. By accident, we see created... an eye! Etc., etc. That's fanciful.

 

[THE_FERN]

That's a black pixel with a whitish pixel adjacent. There are such (artefact) pixels scattered over the head. By accident, we see created... an eye! Etc., etc. That's fanciful.

Simply not what I see, and a little patronising to suggest that I'm not aware of the possibility of suggestion / hardwired tendency for humans to see facial features even when they're not there and don't take that into account when I post.

 

[YuShan]

Turquoise Tanager for me too

 

[njlarsen]

I would not tick a species I do not have on my list from this view. However, I do see most of the features indicating it could be such a Tanager.
Niels

 

[Butty]

a little patronising to suggest that I'm not aware of the possibility of suggestion / hardwired tendency for humans to see facial features even when they're not there and don't take that into account when I post

I did not suggest that.

 

[Fritz73]

I just cropped the photo without any corrections



Form of the bird is clearly a Tanager and not a Dacnis for me.

 

[foresttwitcher]

I've been zooming in on the bird top right in the original photo, I hadn't even spotted that one - no wonder I've been getting confused by the replies!