All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Saffron-crowned Tanager
Saffron-crowned Tanager | Tangara xanthocephala
Geelkoptangare | Tangara coroniazafrán | Saíra-de-coroa-açafrão
The Saffron-crowned Tanager is a tanager of Andean montane forest with a saffron-yellow head, a small black mask and an opal blue-green body. It is one of the regular species of mixed flocks at middle elevations from Colombia to Bolivia and often visits fruiting trees at forest edges.
Voice
High, thin tsit and tseet calls, often in mixed flocks; the song is a short series of high, dry notes.
Recording: Carlos Delgado JUMABITA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13 cm, with a short, black bill. The head and hindneck are bright saffron yellow; the forehead, lores and chin are black and form a small mask. The hindneck has a narrow black band. The back is opal green with black streaks, the rump glossy blue-green. The underparts are opal blue to blue-green, the centre of the belly and the undertail coverts paler buff. Wings and tail are black with blue-green edges. The sexes are alike; juveniles are duller, with a greenish head.
Confusion species
Golden-eared Tanager Tangara chrysotis has a black stripe along the throat, a golden-green crown, a golden-orange ear patch and a cinnamon belly, and lives lower. Flame-faced Tanager Tangara parzudakii is larger, with a red and golden-yellow face, a black throat and a black back. Golden Tanager Tangara arthus is entirely golden yellow with a black ear patch, without a blue-green body.
Habitat
Humid montane forest and cloud forest, forest edges, secondary forest and trees in semi-open country, roughly between 1200 and 2700 m, mostly between 1500 and 2400 m. It eats many small fruits and berries and searches branches and moss for insects, 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. In Bolivia on the eastern slope in La Paz and Cochabamba. Does not occur on the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the Andes of western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Check fruiting trees and mixed flocks along forest edges and roads in cloud forest, for example around Mindo and at San Isidro in Ecuador or along the Manu road in Peru.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Fairly common and widespread; tolerates forest edges and secondary forest.
Scientific name
Tangara xanthocephala | (Tschudi, 1844)
Tschudi described the species in 1844 as C[allospiza] xanthocephala; 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 Greek xanthos, 'yellow', and kephalē, 'head', referring to the yellow crown. The specimen the first description was based on came from Vitoc, Junín, Peru.