Mitrospingid tanagers | Mitrospingidae

Mitrospingustangaren | Mitrospingid tanagers | Mitrospíngidos

A small family of tropical America with a few species long placed among the tanagers, until DNA studies showed that they form a branch of their own within the group of tanagers, cardinals and their relatives. The guide covers two species in two genera. The Dusky-faced Tanager lives in the humid lowlands of the Chocó in western Colombia and Ecuador, above all along streams, rivers and clearings with dense, wet thickets at the forest edge. It is a medium-sized, rather elongated bird with a dark, blackish face, plumage in shades of grey, olive and olive-yellow, and a strikingly pale eye that stands out in the dark face. It lives in noisy groups that move restlessly through the undergrowth, keeping in constant contact with sharp, chipping calls, and other species often join such a group. The Red-billed Pied Tanager is a black-and-white bird with a red bill that moves in small groups through the canopy of the Amazonian forest east of the Andes. Both species eat insects and other small invertebrates, searched for among leaves and twigs, as well as fruit. Little is yet known of their breeding.