Return of Bird of the Week: Palm Tanager
Palm Tanager, Pantanal, Brazil
Not all tanagers are brightly colored, although many of them certainly are. Some have coloration that is a little more subtle, like the Palm Tanager.
The Palm Tanager is one of the most widespread and familiar birds of humid lowland forests of the Neotropics, ranging from Nicaragua south to southern Brazil and in to the Caribbean. The Palm Tanageris similar in many ways to last week’s Blue-gray Tanager, although the Palm Tanageris less likely to be found in urban areas than the Blue-gray Tanager.
Palm Tanager with nesting material, Costa Rica
Palm Tanagersare common at forest borders, but also occur in the canopy of the interior of forest. As the name suggests, Palm Tanagers often are associated with palm trees, but they are not restricted to living in palms.
Their diet is roughly equally balanced between fruit and arthropods. When foraging, they often cling to the undersides of large leaves, such as to the ends of palm fronds and to Cecropialeaves. Palm Tanagers usually travel in pairs, or in small groups. They often forage apart from other species, but Palm Tanagers will join aggregations of other species at fruiting trees. And, like the Blue-Gray, they are easily attracted to feeders.
Palm Tanager, Guayaquil, Ecuador
iNaturalist calls them drab, but WC thinks they are better described as subtly colored, and handsome in their own way,
There are four subspecies, distinguished by range and the amount of yellowish coloration in the head, back and neck. The regional variation is evident in these three photos. The literature on Palm Tanagers is scant, as is often the case in Neotropical birds. Because of their very wide range, Palm Tanagers are not believed to be in immediate danger.
For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.