All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Beryl-spangled Tanager
Beryl-spangled Tanager | Tangara nigroviridis
Zilvervlektangare | Tangara lentejuelada | Saíra-lantejoulada
The Beryl-spangled Tanager is a small, black tanager densely covered in pale, greenish-blue spangles, with a pale green crown and a black mask. It is one of the regular species in mixed flocks in Andean cloud forest from Colombia to Bolivia and often visits fruiting trees at forest edges.
Voice
High, thin tseet and tsit calls, often in mixed flocks; the song is a short series of high, thin notes.
Recording: Ross Gallardy — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13 cm, with a short, pointed black bill. Crown and nape are pale glossy green to greenish blue, the face black like a mask. The back is black with pale, greenish-blue spots; the rump is glossy greenish blue. The underparts are black, densely spotted with round, pale greenish-blue spangles, the centre of the belly paler. Wings and tail are black with blue edges. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are duller and greyer, with less distinct spots.
Confusion species
Metallic-green Tanager Tangara labradorides is plain silvery green without spots, with a black centre to the crown and black lores. Blue-and-black Tanager Tangara vassorii is plain glossy blue with black wings, without spots. Blue-browed Tanager Tangara cyanotis of the eastern slope in Peru and Bolivia has a black back with a blue eyebrow and a buff belly. Golden-naped Tanager Chalcothraupis ruficervix is blue with a golden-brown nape patch.
Habitat
Humid montane forest and cloud forest, forest edges, secondary forest and trees in semi-open country, roughly between 1300 and 3000 m, mostly between 1600 and 2500 m. It searches branches and moss for insects and eats many small fruits and berries, in the middle storey and the canopy. The nest is a cup in a tree or shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in all three Andean ranges. In Ecuador on both slopes of the Andes. In Peru on the eastern slope from north to south, and in the north also on the western slope. In Bolivia on the eastern slope in La Paz and Cochabamba. Does not occur on the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the mountains of western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search mixed flocks along forest edges and roads in cloud forest, for example around Mindo in Ecuador and along the Manu road in Peru; look for a small black bird with pale spangles moving quickly from branch to branch.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common and widespread; tolerates forest edges and secondary forest.
Scientific name
Tangara nigroviridis | (de Lafresnaye, 1843)
De Lafresnaye described the species in 1843 as T[anagra] nigroviridis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Tangara was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. The genus name comes from the extinct Tupi language, in which tangara means 'dancer'. The specific name comes from Latin niger, 'black', and viridis, 'green', referring to the black-and-green plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.