Return of Bird of the Week: Silvery-backed Tanager

Another spectacular tanager, the Silver-backed Tanager, feeding on a berry on the grounds of the hotel where were staying. It’s also called a Silvery Tanager, but that seems less descriptive to WC. Officially it’s Tangara viridicollis, the same genus as last week’s Saffron-crowned Tanager. But that’s no particular distinction, there are fifty-some species in the genus Tangara, most of them ridiculously spectacularly colorful. But unlike most Tangara species, the Silver-backed Tanager is strongly dichromatic. The female is very different. (No, it’s not a very good photo; an extremely uncooperative subject. But good enough to illustrate the point.) Silvery-backed Tanagers are omnivorous, eating fruits, nuts…