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Tacarcuna Chlorospingus | Chlorospingus tacarcunae
Tacarcunatangare | Clorospingo del Tacarcuna | Clorospingo-de-tacarcuna
The Tacarcuna Chlorospingus is a chlorospingus with a very small range in the mountains of eastern Panama, around Cerro Tacarcuna on the border with Colombia. In the guide area it is known only as a rare vagrant or border case, from the Colombian side of those mountains. It lives in small groups in cloud forest, often in mixed flocks.
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Voice
Thin, sharp tsip calls and a series of dry chip notes, as in related species; poorly described.
Recording: Jorge Enrique Avendaño — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a conical, dark bill. The upperparts and head are olive-green, the head slightly greyer, without a distinct white spot behind the eye. The iris is pale. The throat is yellowish to ochre-yellow, the breast olive-yellow and the belly greyish. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Common Chlorospingus Chlorospingus flavopectus has a white spot behind the eye and a whitish throat with a yellow breast band. Yellow-throated Chlorospingus Chlorospingus flavigularis has a bright yellow throat that contrasts sharply with a grey breast, and a darker iris. Pirre Chlorospingus Chlorospingus inornatus from the same region has a darker head.
Habitat
Humid montane forest and cloud forest on the higher slopes, roughly above 800 m. It searches the middle levels of the forest for insects and small fruits, in small groups or with mixed flocks. Little is known about its breeding biology.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia known only from the slopes of Cerro Tacarcuna in the far north-west of Chocó, on the border with Panama, with very few records. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the mountains of eastern Panama, in Darién and the Serranía de San Blas.
How and when to look
Its occurrence in the guide area is limited to a remote border range without roads. A record merits documentation with a photograph or sound recording.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The range is small, but lies in remote, largely forested mountains.
Scientific name
Chlorospingus tacarcunae | Griscom, 1924
Griscom described the species in 1924 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Chlorospingus was introduced in 1851 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek khlōros, 'green', with spingos, a small bird, perhaps the chaffinch. The species name refers to Cerro Tacarcuna, a mountain on the border of Panama and Colombia. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cerro Tacarcuna, Panama.