All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Rust-and-yellow Tanager
Rust-and-yellow Tanager | Thlypopsis ruficeps
Goudkaptangare | Tangara alisera | Saí-ferrugem-e-amarelo
The Rust-and-yellow Tanager is a small tanager with a rufous head and bright yellow underparts, of the mountains of central and southern Peru and Bolivia. It is closely tied to alder woodland (Alnus) and other open montane woodland, from which it also takes its Spanish name. Pairs and small groups search the canopy for insects, often in mixed flocks.
Voice
High tsip calls. The song is a fast, high series of notes ending in a dry little trill.
Recording: Sjoerd Mayer — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13 cm, with a pointed, dark bill. The crown and sides of the head are rusty, the upperparts olive-grey to olive-green. The throat and underparts are bright yellow, the throat often with a rusty wash. The female is duller, with a less extensive and paler rusty head. Juveniles are more olive, with little rusty on the head.
Confusion species
Russet-crowned Warbler Myiothlypis coronata has a rusty crown stripe bordered with black, a grey face and a longer tail. Superciliaried Hemispingus Thlypopsis superciliaris has a grey head with a white supercilium. Orange-headed Tanager Thlypopsis sordida has a grey back and pale grey underparts, and lives lower.
Habitat
Alder woodland, riparian woodland, forest edges, scrub and young secondary woodland in the mountains, also in dry valleys and around fields, locally near Polylepis, roughly between 1500 and 3500 m. It searches the canopy and outer twigs for insects, often in mixed flocks. The nest is a cup in a tree or shrub. In the south of the range some birds move lower outside the breeding season.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru on the eastern slope of the Andes and in the valleys of the centre and south of the country. In Bolivia in the Yungas and the dry valleys of the eastern slope, south to the border with Argentina. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in north-western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search alder groves and riparian woodland in the mountain valleys, for example in the Cuzco valley or around Cochabamba. The birds often sit high in the trees and give themselves away by high calls.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates secondary woodland and planted alders, and is locally common.
Scientific name
Thlypopsis ruficeps | (d'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye, 1837)
D'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye described the species in 1837 as S[ylvia] ruficeps; 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 combines Latin rufus, 'rufous', with -ceps, 'headed', for the rusty head. The specimen the first description was based on came from Palca, Ayopaya, Cochabamba, Bolivia.