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Sulphur-rumped Tanager | Heterospingus rubrifrons
Zwavelstuitkuiftangare | Tangara lomiazufrada
The Sulphur-rumped Tanager is a stocky, slate-grey tanager of the canopy and edges of humid lowland forest. It usually lives in pairs that travel with mixed flocks of other forest birds. Its range lies almost entirely within the guide area: the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and much of Panama.
Voice
Calls with sharp, high chip notes, often repeated as a group moves. The song is a simple series of high, thin notes.
Recording: Jorge Gabriel Campos — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
15–16 cm. A sturdy tanager with a fairly thick, dark bill. Upperparts dark slate-grey, underparts slightly paler grey; wings and tail blackish. The rump is sulphur-yellow but is often hidden under the wings when perched. White tufts protrude from the sides of the breast, often visible as a white spot at the bend of the wing. Male and female are alike; the male is slightly darker.
Confusion species
The female Scarlet-browed Tanager Heterospingus xanthopygius (eastern Panama) is almost identical and hard to separate in the field; the male of that species is black with a scarlet eyebrow tuft. Plain-colored Tanager Tangara inornata is smaller, paler grey with a whitish belly and lacks a yellow rump. Female White-shouldered Tanagers Loriotus luctuosus have yellow underparts.
Habitat
Canopy, middle levels and edges of humid evergreen lowland and foothill forest, mainly below 600 m; also tall secondary forest and clearings with scattered trees. It eats insects and fruit.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, where it is rare and local; in Panama on the Caribbean slope and, in the centre and east of the country, also on the Pacific slope. Beyond that only in extreme north-western Colombia. Sometimes merged with Scarlet-browed Tanager.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the lowland forests around the Panama Canal, such as Soberanía National Park and Achiote, it can be seen in mixed canopy flocks; on a perched bird the white breast tufts show more than the yellow rump.
Conservation status
Not threatened (LC). Fairly common in Panama, scarce in Costa Rica; sensitive to the loss of lowland forest.
Scientific name
Heterospingus rubrifrons | (Lawrence, 1865)
Lawrence described the species in 1865 as Tachyphonus rubrifrons; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Heterospingus was introduced in 1898 by Ridgway. Heterospingus is Greek, from heteros 'different' and spingos 'finch': a different finch, split by Ridgway from Tachyphonus. rubrifrons is Latin, from ruber 'red' and frons 'forehead'; why Lawrence chose it is unclear, as the bird has no red forehead. The specimen the first description was based on came from Lion Hill on the Panama Railroad, Panama.