White-lined Tanager Tachyphonus rufus Scientific name definitions
- LC Least Concern
- Names (29)
- Monotypic
Text last updated March 3, 2013
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Species names in all available languages
Language | Common name |
---|---|
Catalan | tàngara de galons blancs |
Croatian | crna tangara |
Dutch | Zwarte tangare |
English | White-lined Tanager |
English (United States) | White-lined Tanager |
French | Tangara à galons blancs |
French (Canada) | Tangara à galons blancs |
German | Schwarztangare |
Japanese | クロフウキンチョウ |
Norwegian | svarttanagar |
Polish | żałobnik czarny |
Portuguese (Brazil) | pipira-preta |
Portuguese (Portugal) | Pipira-preta |
Russian | Чёрная танагра |
Serbian | Crna tangara |
Slovak | sangara čierna |
Spanish | Tangara Negra |
Spanish (Argentina) | Frutero Negro |
Spanish (Costa Rica) | Tangara Forriblanca |
Spanish (Ecuador) | Tangara Filiblanca |
Spanish (Panama) | Tangara Filiblanca |
Spanish (Paraguay) | Frutero negro |
Spanish (Peru) | Tangara de Líneas Blancas |
Spanish (Spain) | Tangara negra |
Spanish (Uruguay) | Frutero Negro |
Spanish (Venezuela) | Chocolatero |
Swedish | svarttangara |
Turkish | Beyaz Çizgili Tangara |
Ukrainian | Танагра-жалібниця велика |
Tachyphonus rufus (Boddaert, 1783)
Definitions
- TACHYPHONUS
- rufum / rufus
The Key to Scientific Names
Legend Overview
Introduction
The White-lined Tanager is strikingly dimorphic, and the sight of the black male in close association with the rufous female is often the first clue to identification. The name refers to the extensive white on the underwing coverts of the male, which typically are visible only in flight. Pairs give contact calls as they travel through the undergrowth of clearings and edge habitats, often near water. This species is patchily distributed in areas of open forest from Costa Rica south to western Ecuador, from northern Colombia east to the Guianas, from eastern Brazil south to northern Argentina, and in the eastern Andes of Peru and southern Ecuador.
The genus name Tachyphonus derives from the Greek words takhus meaning fast, and phone meaning sound or voice, thus translates as "fast speaking" (Jobling 2010). The specific epithet, rufus, comes from the Latin word rufus meaning red, which refers to the rufous brown coloration of the female (Jobling 2010). In Spanish the common name is Tangara Negra (Hilty 2011, de Juana et al. 2012), and in Portuguese the common name is Pipira-Preta (CRBO 2010).
Field Identification
17 cm; 25·7–42·5 g. Male is entirely glossy blue-black, except for white underwing-coverts (flash of white when bird in flight); small amount of white at bend of wing and occasionally on marginal coverts (almost always hidden when bird at rest); iris dark brown; bill blackish, lower mandible bluish-grey with black on tip often extending over distal half; legs horn-grey to dark grey. Female is uniformly rufous, slightly paler below; flight-feathers dusky, edged and tinged rufous. Immature is like female; subadult male similar, but with variable amount of black mottling and patchiness (which can appear almost anywhere in plumage).
Systematics History
Subspecies
Distribution
SE Nicaragua, Costa Rica (Caribbean coast), SW Panama (Caribbean slope and locally on Pacific slope), Colombia (N & NE, including base of Santa Marta Mts, most of Andean region, and locally E of Andes in llanos) and Venezuela (except S, including Margarita I) E to Trinidad and Tobago, the Guianas, and E Brazil (W Mato Grosso S to N Paraná) S to extreme E Bolivia, Paraguay and N Argentina (S to N Buenos Aires); also isolated populations in NW & SE Ecuador and N & SE Peru.
Habitat
Movement
Diet and Foraging
Of 22 stomachs examined, seven contained only vegetable matter and eleven only animal matter, and four contained both; contents included ants (Formicidae), beetles (Coleoptera), bugs (Hemiptera), flies (Diptera), spiders (Araneae), feather fragments, also fruit , berries and seeds; also reported as eating caterpillars, a moth (Lepidoptera) and a katydid (Tettigoniidae) in Venezuela. Observed to consume papayas (Carica papaya), guavas (Psidium) and other commercial and garden fruits . In Trinidad, 28 species of fruit recorded in diet, epiphytes accounting for 35%, Miconia for 20% and Cecropia for 14% of the total. Almost always in pairs, partners keeping close together and staying low in bushy clearings; often pop up into the open briefly before flying off, one following its mate in low flight across an opening. Usually independent of mixed-species flocks. Rather active, often flicking wings as it hops and peers in foliage, but forages mostly less than 6 m above ground, and often on ground ; in all areas tends to stay out of sight when foraging. Of 238 records of feeding attempts in Trinidad, 60% involved fruit, 30% insect-seeking, and 10% were at flowers; small fruits usually mashed before being eating; flowers or flower parts picked or squeezed, presumably for nectar. Gleans and picks insects from leaves, makes short sallies to air, and regularly drops to ground for insects; of 74 observed instances of insect-catching, 51% were on the ground, 32% in foliage, 14% in aerial sallies, and 3% from branches. Has occasionally been noted at army-ant swarms and taking flying termites (Isoptera).
Sounds and Vocal Behavior
Infrequently heard song in Venezuela, sometimes given in flight, a bouncy, chattery “chuéé, chuit, chuit-chuit-chuit” and so on, first syllable strongest; in Mérida (W Venezuela) a soft tentative “cheewank, wink, cheewank, wink, cheewank...”, first note falling, second rising, in leisurely hypnotic cadence. In Trinidad described as a somewhat musical “chip-chiwer, chip-chur, chip-wheeeo, cheeru, chéép-chooi” or “chip-chip-wheer”, repeated rapidly over and over. Dawn song of 2–4 phrases separated by pauses of 5–6 seconds. In Ecuador song described as a musical but repetitive “chip chirp weep chirp chip chirp weep...”. Call a soft, rising “sweet”.
Breeding
Conservation Status
- Year-round
- Migration
- Breeding
- Non-Breeding