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Scarlet-rumped Tanager | Ramphocelus passerinii
Roodrugtangare | Tangara terciopelo
The Scarlet-rumped Tanager is a velvety black tanager with a scarlet lower back and a pale blue bill. It is one of the commonest tanagers of the Central American lowlands and lives in noisy small groups in gardens, scrub and along forest edges. The species occurs only in the guide area, from south-eastern Mexico to western Panama.
Voice
The call is a sharp, hard wak or chek, often from groups. The dawn song consists of short, whistled phrases repeated for a long time, such as chee-weet chee-weet.
Recording: Scott Olmstead — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
16–17 cm. A medium-sized tanager with a thick, pale blue to silvery-white bill with a black tip. The male is velvety black with a bright scarlet lower back and rump. The female differs by slope: on the Caribbean slope she has a grey head, an olive-brown back, an ochre rump and olive-yellow underparts; on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and western Panama (form costaricensis) the breast and rump are bright orange. Both forms were formerly treated as separate species.
Confusion species
The male Crimson-collared Tanager Ramphocelus sanguinolentus has a red hood and collar. The male Flame-rumped Tanager Ramphocelus flammigerus (Panama) has a lemon-yellow rump; intermediates occur in western Panama. Crimson-backed Tanager Ramphocelus dimidiatus (Panama) has a dark red head and breast and a red belly. The female resembles that of Flame-rumped Tanager, but has a grey head and a more orange breast.
Habitat
Forest edges, scrub, gardens, plantations, pastures with hedgerows and riverside vegetation in the humid lowlands and foothills, from sea level to about 1500 m. It avoids closed forest. It eats mainly fruit, and also insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of south-eastern Mexico (southern Veracruz, northern Oaxaca, Tabasco and Chiapas) through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to western Panama; also the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and western Panama. It does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Seen almost everywhere in the lowlands of Costa Rica, often at feeders with bananas; with females, note the difference between the Caribbean and the Pacific form.
Conservation status
Not threatened (LC). Very common and benefits from deforestation and the creation of gardens and plantations.
Scientific name
Ramphocelus passerinii | Bonaparte, 1831
Bonaparte described the species in 1831 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Ramphocelus was introduced in 1805 by Desmarest, A-G. Ramphocelus is Greek, from rhamphos 'bill' and koilos 'hollow, concave', after the conspicuous silvery lower mandible. passerinii probably honours the Italian zoologist and entomologist Carlo Passerini (1793–1857) of the Florence museum. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guatemala (originally given in error as 'Cuba').