TANAGERS   -   THRAUPIDAE   -   PART IV

Swallow Tanager Tersina viridis grisescens Sierra de Santa Marta, Magdalena dept., Colombia. Male. (S5)		Swallow Tanager Tersina viridis viridis Caraça reserve, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Female. (D3)

Black-faced Dacnis Dacnis lineata lineata Hostería Arrayán y Piedra, Macas, Morona-Santiago province, Ecuador. Male. This is the widespread nominate race of Amazonia. (S5)

Black-faced (Yellow-tufted) Dacnis Dacnis lineata egregia El Paujil reserive, Santander department, Colombia. The subspecies west of the Andes, with yellow bellies and tufts under their wings, might better be considered as a separate species. (D3)		Yellow-bellied Dacnis Dacnis flaviventer Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. Male. The color combination makes it totally unique among dacnises, and I've always wondered if it might best be separated as a monotypic genus. It's a common species of the western Amazon. (S6)

Turquoise Dacnis Dacnis hartlaubi Reserva Reinita Cielo Azul, Santander department, Colombia. Male. A very localized Colombian endemic. The reason for it's rarity is poorly known since it is not a bird of primary forest. I saw this one in a tall tree in a coffee plantation. (D3)

Blue Dacnis Dacnis cayana paraguayensis Folha Seca, São Paulo state, Brazil. Male. A common and widespread species. It is found in virtually all of tropical South America, as well as southern Central America. (S6)

Blue Dacnis Dacnis cayana paraguayensis Folha Seca, São Paulo state, Brazil. Female. (S6)

Red-legged Honeycreeper Cyanerpes cyaneus pacificus San Lorenzo, Esmeraldas province, Ecuador. Male. (D3)

Red-legged Honeycreeper Cyanerpes cyaneus carneipes North of Mapastepec, Chiapas state, Mexico. Female. (S5)

Green Honeycreeper Chlorophanes spiza axillaris Folha Seca, Ubatuba, São Paulo state, Brazil. Male. A common an widespreads species in Neotropical lowlands rainforest. It occurs from southern Mexico south to SE Brazil. (S6)

Green Honeycreeper Chlorophanes spiza axillaris Folha Seca, Ubatuba, São Paulo state, Brazil. Female. (D6)

Golden-collared Honeycreeper Iridophanes pulcherrimus pulcherrimus Cabañas San Isidro, Napo province, Ecuador. Male. (D1)

Guira Tanager Hemithraupis guira guirina Mirador Rio Blanco, San Miguel de Los Bancos, Pichincha province, Ecuador. Male. I overexposed the shot because I forgot to change my exposure compensation back from the previous photo, which was of a backlit subject. I've fixed it up as best I could but this was definitely a lost opportunity! (S6)

Yellow-backed Tanager Hemithraupis flavicollis insignis Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. This is the only place I know where this tanager comes to feeders. It's a hard bird to photograph otherwise, since it sticks to the forest canopy. This species is found mainly in the Amazon, with isolated populations in the Atlantic Rainforest and in NW Colombia & adjacent Panama. A photo of the female is below. (S5)

Yellow-backed Tanager Hemithraupis flavicollis insignis Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Female. (S5)

Chestnut-vented Conebill Conirostrum speciosum speciosum Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. (S6)

Chestnut-vented Conebill Conirostrum speciosum speciosum Guapi Assu Bird Lodge, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Female. (S6)

Blue-backed Conebill Conirostrum sitticolor cyaneum Abra Barro Negro, Amazonas department, Peru. A beautiful bird of temperate Andean forest from Venezuela to Bolivia. It is almost always encountered following mixed species flocks. (S6)

Cinereous Conebill Conirostrum cinereum fraseri Papallacta, Napo province, Ecuador. Seems to replace the next species from southern Colombia southward. (S6)

Rufous-browed Conebill Conirostrum rufum Chingaza NP, Cundinamarca dept, Colombia. Almost a Colombian endemic; it barely reaches Venezuela. It lives in scrub and stunted forest around the edge of the páramo. (S6)

Tamarugo Conebill Conirostrum tamarugense Chaca Valley, Region I, Chile. This is a neat little bird restricted to arid areas of northern Chile and extreme southern Peru. (S5)

Slaty Flowerpiercer Diglossa plumbea plumbea Savegre Mountain Hotel, San José province, Costa Rica. Male. (S5)

Glossy Flowerpiercer Diglossa lafresnayii Papallacta, Napo province, Ecuador. A common bird in the highest temperates forest just below treeline. It's found in the northern Andes from Venezuela to extreme North Peru. (S6)

Black Flowerpiercer Diglossa humeralis humeralis Cerro de Guadalupe, Bogotá, Colombia. This photo doesn't show it because of the angle, but the nominate race of Black Flowerpiercer also has a white shoulder patch, much like Glossy Flowerpiercer D. lafresnayii. The two can be very hard to separate in the field. This bird was singing which made it easier. (S5)

White-sided Flowerpiercer Diglossa albilatera albilatera El Dorado reserve, Santa Marta mountains, Magdalena dept., Colombia. Female. (S5)

Indigo Flowerpiercer Diglossa indigotica Mashpi road, Pichincha province, Ecuador. A localized Chocó endemic, found in the Andes of western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. (S6)

Rusty Flowerpiercer Diglossa sittoides sittoides La Cuesta del Obispo, Salta province, Argentina. Male. I think this is the most widespread species of flowerpiercer. It can be found in mountains from northern Venezuela south to northern Argentina. In areas where other species of flowerpiercer occur, Rusties seem to perfer drier habitats such as rainshadow valleys. (S6)

Masked Flowerpiercer Diglossa cyanea cyanea Las Tabias, Mérida state, Venezuela. (D3)

Plushcap Catamblyrhynchus diadema diadema Papallacta, Napo province, Ecuador. A quintessential South American cloudforest species. This lovely and unique bird is strongly tied to patches of Chusquea bamboo from elevations of about 2000 m. (6600 ft.) to treeline. I had been trying to photograph it for many years without success, and finally nailed it in a mixed species flock in Papallacta. (S6)

Black-backed Bush Tanager Urothraupis stolzmanni Papallacta, Napo province, Ecuador. A unique Andean species found only in the highest elevation around treeline, about about 3300 m. (10,800 ft.). It has a fairly limited range from central Colombia to central Ecuador. It is usually easy to find in the Papallacta area, about an hour outside of Quito. Another photo is below. (S6)

Black-backed Bush Tanager Urothraupis stolzmanni Papallacta, Napo province, Ecuador. (S6)

Bananaquit Coereba flaveola intermedia Buenaventura reserve, El Oro province, Ecuador. No one really knows where this familiar bird belongs in the taxonomic order. Often it is but in its own monotypic family, the Coerebidae, but more recently the SACC has labeled it as Incertae Sedis. I'm going to leave it here at the end of the tanagers for now. (S5)

Bananaquit Coereba flaveola chloropyga Folha Seca, São Paulo state, Brazil. There are 42 subspecies of Bananaquit listed on the Clements checklist! I've never really paid much attention to the racial differences, since in the areas I have been they seem to be minor. The one in this photos appears to be lighter and more washed out. (S5)