Speckled Tanager

Taxobox
name = Speckled Tanager
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Neornithes
infraclassis = Neognathae
superordo = Neoaves
ordo = Passeriformes
subordo = Passeri
infraordo = Passerida
superfamilia = Passeroidea
familia = Thraupidae
genus = "Tangara"
species = "T. guttata"
binomial = "Tangara guttata"
binomial_authority = (Cabanis, 1850)

The Speckled Tanager, "Tangara guttata", is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia and the extreme north of Brazil.Verify source|date=April 2008

It is probably a close relative of the Spotted Tanager ("T. punctata") which replaces it to the south. These two species are generally presumably to be fully allopatric, but may actually be parapatric: in 1998 a Speckled Tanager was found in the Serranía de los Churumbelos (Colombia), just about 100 miles (160 km) north of where Spotted Tanagers are known to occur.Salaman "et al." (2002)]

Adult Speckled Tanagers are 5.2 in (13.2 cm) long and weigh 0.63 oz (18 g). The upperparts are green with black spotting, and the face is yellow with a black line from the eye to the gape. The wings and tail are black edged with green, and the underparts are white spotted with black. The sexes are similar. The Speckled Tanager's flight call is a weak metallic chirping "tsip".

The Trinidadian subspecies "T. g. trinitatis" has brighter and more extensive yellow on the head, and the black spotting is more conspicuous.

"T. guttata" is more of a subtropical species than its relative and occurs in humid montane and secondary forest, with generally not very tall trees and a dense understory. Speckled Tanagers are social birds which eat mainly fruit and some insects. They are often seen with Bay-headed Tanagers and honeycreepers.

The small cup nest is built in a tree and the normal clutch is two brown-blotched white eggs. The female incubates the eggs for 13 days to hatching, with another 15 days before the chicks fledge.

Footnotes

References

*|year=2004|id=53900|title=Tangara guttata|downloaded=10 May 2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
* (1991): "A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago" (2nd edition). Comstock Publishing, Ithaca, N.Y.. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2
* (2003): "Birds of Venezuela". Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
* (2002): New and noteworthy bird records from the east slope of the Andes of Colombia. "Caldasia" 24(1): 157-189. [http://www.unal.edu.co/icn/publicaciones/caldasia/24(1)/240111.pdf PDF fulltext]