All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Silver-beaked Tanager
Silver-beaked Tanager | Ramphocelus carbo
Fluweeltangare | Tangara picoplata | Pipira-vermelha
The Silver-beaked Tanager is one of the most widespread tanagers of the Amazonian lowlands and the foot of the Andes. The male is velvety blackish-red with a greatly expanded, silvery-white lower mandible that stands out in the field. The species lives in noisy small flocks at forest edges, in scrub and in gardens.
Voice
Flocks give constant sharp chek calls; the song is a simple, repeated series of whistled notes, often in the early morning.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
17–18 cm. The male is velvety dark blackish-red, with a brighter crimson throat and breast; the lower mandible is greatly expanded and silvery-white, the upper mandible black. The female is dark reddish-brown, with a redder rump and belly and a dark bill without a conspicuous silvery-white lower mandible. Juveniles resemble the female.
Confusion species
Masked Crimson Tanager Ramphocelus nigrogularis has a bright crimson head and back and a black mask. The male Huallaga Tanager Ramphocelus melanogaster in the Huallaga Valley of Peru has a bright crimson rump and flanks and a black belly centre. The female White-lined Tanager Tachyphonus rufus is uniform rufous, paler and less reddish.
Habitat
Forest edges, scrub, riversides, várzea edges, second growth, plantations and gardens, from the lowlands to roughly 1500 m. It lives in small flocks that move through shrubs and low trees and eat mainly fruit, also insects. The nest is a cup in a shrub or low 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 the lowlands east of the Andes and on the lower eastern slopes. In Ecuador in the Amazonian lowlands and on the lower eastern slopes. In Peru in the lowlands and valleys east of the Andes. In Bolivia in the lowlands and the lower Yungas. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas, much of Brazil and Paraguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In villages, gardens and along riversides in the Amazonian lowlands you see small flocks of dark red birds whose silvery-white lower mandible is often the first thing to stand out, in flight and in the shade of shrubs.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is widespread and common, and benefits from open, human-shaped landscapes.
Scientific name
Ramphocelus carbo | (Pallas, 1764)
Pallas described the species in 1764 as Lanius (Carbo); because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Ramphocelus was introduced in 1805 by Desmarest, A-G. The genus name combines Greek rhamphos, 'bill', and koilos, 'hollow, concave'. The species name comes from Latin carbo, 'charcoal', for the dark plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Suriname.