Return of Bird of the Week: Golden Tanager
Okay, we’ve had a drab – well, subtle – Palm Tanager. We’ve had a ridiculously colorful Paradise Tanager. Let’s go back to a merely colorful tanager, this time the Golden Tanager.
Golden Tanager, probably Tangara arthus sophiae, Andean Peru
The Golden Tanager is distributed from northern Venezuela to southern Peru, with at least nine subspecies scattered across that range. It’s a bright, golden bird, with blue and yellow in its wings.
Golden Tanager, probably Tangara arthus goodsoni, Andean Ecuador
You can see the much smaller black auricular patch, and the very different coloration in the wing in this subspecies. This might be the most variable of the tanager species WC has encountered.
Golden Tanagers are about averaged-sized for the Tangara genus, running 13.5 – 14 centimeters long. They eat fruit and insects. They forage in mixed flocks, usually along forest borders and margins. They do come to fruit feeders, but are primarily forest birds.
The Golden Tanager is unusual in that it is a cooperative breeder. Three to four adult birds feed the nestlings, probably last year’s offspring. Golden Tanagers are comparatively slow breeders, laying just one or two eggs each year. But because of their wide distribution, they are believed to be largely unthreatened. The IUCNassesses the conservation status of the Golden Tanageras of Least Concern. But their population may be declining. This is a mountain species, and there is some chance the species is aboard the extinction escalator.
For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Out of curiosity, WC, are you intimately familiar with the majority of bird species you photograph? I have trouble identifying male/female of a species, let alone all the different species even in a limited environment like iowa. Fabulous photography and information about your subjects is always appreciAaed.
Mike, I cannot claim much, if any, real familiarity with most of the species I photograph. Many of the Neotropic species I have seen only a few times; maybe only once. Identification of birds is a matter of study and practice. If I can learn it, anyone can.
/WC