Mitrospingid tanagers | Mitrospingidae

Mitrospingustangaren | Mitrospíngidos

A small South and Central American family of 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 one species, the Dusky-faced Tanager, which lives in the humid lowlands of Costa Rica and Panama, 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. It eats insects and other small invertebrates, searched for among leaves and twigs, as well as fruit. Little is yet known of its breeding.