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Golden Tanager | Tangara arthus
Goudtangare | Tangara dorada | Saíra-dourada
The Golden Tanager is a golden-yellow tanager with a black ear patch and a black-streaked back, one of the commonest species in mixed flocks in lower montane forest of the Andes. Its subspecies differ mainly in the colour of the throat and breast, from golden yellow to brownish orange.
Voice
High, thin tsit and sharp tsip calls, often in mixed flocks; the song is a short series of rapid, high notes.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a short, black bill. The head, neck and underparts are golden yellow, with a prominent black spot on the ear coverts and black lores. The back is golden yellow with broad black streaks. Wings and tail are black, the wing coverts and flight feathers with yellow or golden-green edges. Depending on the subspecies the throat and breast are golden yellow, orange-yellow or brownish orange; in southern Peru and Bolivia the underparts are warmer, ochre to tawny. The sexes are alike; juveniles are duller and greener.
Confusion species
Silver-throated Tanager Tangara icterocephala of the western slope is also yellow, but has a silvery-white throat with a black moustachial stripe and no black ear patch. Saffron-crowned Tanager Tangara xanthocephala has only a yellow head and an opal blue-green body. Golden-eared Tanager Tangara chrysotis has a black throat stripe, a golden-orange ear patch and a cinnamon belly.
Habitat
Canopy and edges of humid lower montane rainforest and foothill forest, also secondary forest and fruiting trees in semi-open country, roughly between 600 and 2200 m, mostly between 900 and 1800 m. It searches mossy branches for insects and eats many small fruits, usually in the canopy and often in groups of a few birds within mixed flocks. The nest is a cup in a tree.
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 and in the Serranía de Perijá. In Ecuador on both slopes of the Andes. In Peru on the eastern slope from north to south. 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 northern and western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Check mixed flocks along forest edges and roads in lower montane forest, for example around Mindo and in the Río Bombuscaro valley in Ecuador or along the middle part of the Manu road in Peru; the golden yellow with the black ear patch stands out in the canopy.
Conservation status
Not evaluated in the taxonomy followed here. Common and widespread; tolerates forest edges and secondary forest, but declines locally through deforestation.
Scientific name
Tangara arthus | Lesson, 1832
Lesson described the species in 1832 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Tangara was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. The genus name comes from the extinct Tupi language, in which tangara means 'dancer'. The species name honours Claude Arthus-Bertrand (1770–1834), French bookseller and publisher. The specimen the first description was based on came from Caracas, Venezuela.