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Yellow-green Tanager Bangsia flavovirens Scientific name definitions

Steven Hilty
Version: 1.1 — Published August 18, 2021

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Introduction

Known from a small range and relatively few localities in southwest Colombia and western Ecuador, this tanager is listed as Vulnerable by BirdLife International, although the species is fairly common locally. It is known from altitudes between 450 and 1200 m, and is found in wet mossy forests and their borders. Typically encountered in pairs or small groups, the Yellow-green Tanager is often observed associating with mixed-species foraging flocks in the middle strata or subcanopy of forest. Its diet seems relatively catholic, with small fruits, flowers, and insects all having been recorded. In terms of plumage, this is a very uniformly colored tanager, being dull olive above and olive-yellow below, becoming more yellow over the middle and ventral underparts. The brown irides contrast only slightly.

Field Identification

14 cm; 22·5–27 g. Very plain, dingy tanager, almost uniformly coloured throughout; strong-billed. Lores and ocular area are dusky (not in strong contrast to rest of head), otherwise head yellowish-­olive (or olive-citrine); upperparts olive with faint yellowish tinge; bend of wing pale yellow (usually hidden), median and greater upperwing-coverts and primary coverts dull dark olive, flight-feathers dusky olive, edged dull yellow, tertials and tail dull dark olive; olive-yellow below, slightly paler and yellower, more olive-ochre, on centre of throat, centre of belly and undertail-coverts; iris brown to dark brown; upper mandible blackish with narrow base blue-grey, lower mandible blue-grey with dusky tip; legs dark grey. Sexes similar. Juvenile undescribed.

Systematics History

Traditionally placed in Chlorospingus (now treated within Passerellidae), but molecular work has shown this species to be a thraupid (1) and sister to Bangsia arcaei; these two are sister to all other congeners (2). Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

SW Colombia (W slope of W Andes in upper Anchicayá Valley, in Valle del Cauca; Nariño) and Ecuador (in E Esmeraldas; Pichincha).

Habitat

Wet mossy forest and along forest borders and nearby tall trees in clearings. Recorded at 500–1050 m in Colombia.

Movement

Resident. During an intensive 16-month observation period in 1972 and 1973 at a site in Anchicayá Valley (at 1050 m), ringed individuals were resident throughout.

Diet and Foraging

Fruits, also small arthropods. Stomach contents of one birds included fig (Ficus) fruit and other vegetable matter. Of 91 foraging records in Colombia (Anchicayá Valley, in Valle del Cauca), 45% involved fruit, 34% were insect-searching, and 21% were at flowers (where ate either flower parts or possibly insects). More than 14 species of fruit were taken, mostly melastomes (75% of all fruit), especially Miconia berries. Travels in groups of 3–5 individuals, often with mixed-species flocks. Median foraging height c. 12 m, but regularly goes into canopy at 22–30 m, and into thickets or lower vegetation along forest borders, with many foraging-height records c. 7 m up. About 13% of observed fruit-eating events were at parasitic and epiphytic plants, and sometimes noted as flying directly from one mistletoe (Loranthaceae) clump to another. Took most fruit from perched positions, rarely hung from Cecropia catkins. Swallowed small fruits whole and mashed larger ones. Searched for insects mainly on all sides of large (more than 13 cm diameter) mossy branches and on tree trunks; also looked at patches of moss, hanging moss clumps, ferns and epiphytes. Perched upright, hung upside-down or clung to substrates to pick at prey. Rarely pursued escaping insects in air or sallied to moss or other surfaces. Once seen to tear apart a termite (Isoptera) nest.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Call a husky, often repeated “chup!” or “tsup!”, coarser and more raspy than notes of other members of genus. Song unknown.

Breeding

Two nests, one in Mar and one in May, in Colombia (Valle): a mossy cup 5 m and 7 m above ground, one in mossy tree fork, the other at base of palm fronds. No other information.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in Chocó EBA. Extremely local. At the few sites where it is known in SW Colombia and NW Ecuador it is rare or uncommon and difficult to find. In Colombia, found at one (possibly two) sites close to each other in Valle del Cauca and at four sites (all close together) in Nariño, and large areas of mostly intact habitat exist between these two areas. In Ecuador, recorded in Esmeraldas at El Placer, Awacachi Corridor, Alto Tambo, Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve and Canandé Reserve, and in Pichincha occurs along the Milpe road. The species was relatively numerous along one E ridge of upper Anchicayá Valley, a region afforded protection over the years by privately operated companies because of a small hydropower site. Elsewhere within its tiny known range, pressure from human colonization and deforestation is likely to continue to place this species at serious risk. Logging, deforestation and land-use change are increasing almost throughout the species’ range, with no indication of consideration for the environment, and even in reserves protection of the habitat is not efficiently enforced.

Distribution of the Yellow-green Chlorospingus - Range Map
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Distribution of the Yellow-green Chlorospingus

Recommended Citation

Hilty, S. (2021). Yellow-green Tanager (Bangsia flavovirens), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ygbtan1.01.1
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