All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Rufous-chested Tanager
Rufous-chested Tanager | Thlypopsis ornata
Kaneelborsttangare | Tangara pechicanela | Saí-de-peito-ferrugem
The Rufous-chested Tanager is a small, grey tanager with an orange-rufous head and breast and a white belly, of the Andes from southern Colombia to Peru. It keeps to forest edges, scrub and alder groves, often in semi-open terrain. Pairs and small groups search the outer twigs for insects, often in mixed flocks.
Voice
High, thin tsit calls. The song is a short, fast series of high, squeaky notes.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, with a pointed, dark bill. The head, throat and breast are warm orange-rufous to cinnamon, the belly white, the flanks greyish. The upperparts, wings and tail are grey. The female resembles the male but is slightly paler and duller. Juveniles are greyer, with a faintly ochre head and breast.
Confusion species
Brown-flanked Tanager Thlypopsis pectoralis has brown flanks and a browner back, and lives only in central Peru. Buff-bellied Tanager Thlypopsis inornata has entirely buff underparts without a white belly, and lives lower in the dry Marañón valley. Fulvous-headed Tanager Thlypopsis fulviceps has a grey breast, and lives only in north-eastern Colombia.
Habitat
Forest edges, scrub, hedgerows, alder groves, riparian woodland and second growth in the mountains, also around fields and in gardens, roughly between 1500 and 3300 m. It searches the outer twigs and among leaves for insects, in pairs or small groups, often in mixed flocks. The nest is a cup in a 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 the south, on the Central and Western Andes. In Ecuador on both slopes of the Andes and in the valleys between them. In Peru in the Andes over much of the country, south to the Cuzco area. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search hedgerows, alder groves and shrubby forest edges in the mountain valleys, for example in northern Ecuador. Watch for pairs with an orange-rufous head and breast in mixed flocks.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates semi-open mountain farmland with scrub and forest remnants.
Scientific name
Thlypopsis ornata | (Sclater, 1859)
Sclater described the species in 1859 as Nemosia ornata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Thlypopsis was introduced in 1851 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek thlupis, an unknown small bird, with opsis, 'appearance'. The species name is Latin ornatus, 'adorned', for the coloured plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pallatanga, Chimborazo, Ecuador.