Return of Bird of the Week: Golden-hooded Tanager
It’s been more than a year since WC blogged about Tanagers, the most colorful bird family in the Neotropics. WC will attempt to make up for the lapse by focusing on Thraupidae, the tanager family, for the next few weeks on the birds of the week. There are an astonishing 380 or so species in the family Thraupidae. WC has photos of about 100 of them, although not all are even close to presentation quality. So we could have nothing but tanagers for quite a while. We’ll see.
We’ll start with one of the colorful species, the Golden-hooded Tanager.
Golden-hooded Tanager, Costa Rica
In its range, extending from southern Mexico to Western Ecuador, there’s not anything close to it in appearance. Unlike a lot of tanager species, the male and female look pretty much the same. The females are slightly smaller, and slightly drabber, but it’s difficult to detect those differences in the field.
Golden-hoodeds are primarily frugivores, especially small berries. They take insects less often, particularly to feed their young.
Golden-headed Tanager, Ecuador
Because fruit is their main diet, they are commonly seen at bird feeders, and never fail to provoke a reaction.
The populations of this species is large and apparently stable. The wide geographic range makes it a species of least concern. Which is just as well; if we lose this gorgeous a species, birders might get violent.
For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.