The crimson-collared tanager (''Ramphocelus sanguinolentus'') is a rather small Middle American

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds ( Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 50 ...

. It was first described by the French naturalist René-Primevère Lesson in 1831, its specific epithet from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

adjective ''sanguinolentus'', "bloodied", referring to its red plumage.

Taxonomy

This species is sometimes placed in a genus of its own as ''Phlogothraupis sanguinolenta'', and a genetic study suggests that it is less closely related to the other ''Ramphocelus'' tanagers than they are to each other. Its closest relative is the

masked crimson tanager The masked crimson tanager (''Ramphocelus nigrogularis'') is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical swamps and subtropical or tro ...

Description

Crimson-collared tanagers average long. The adult plumage is black with a red collar covering the nape, neck, and breast (remarkably similar to the pattern of the male

crimson-collared grosbeak The crimson-collared grosbeak (''Rhodothraupis celaeno'') is a medium-size seed- and leaf-eating bird in the same family as the northern cardinal, Cardinalidae. The crimson-collared grosbeak is primarily found in north-eastern Mexico from c ...

). All tail coverts are also red. The bill is striking pale blue and the legs are blue-gray. In adults, the irides are crimson, contrary to what is shown in Howell and Webb. Females average slightly duller than males, but are sometimes indistinguishable from them. Juvenile birds are similar except that the hood is dull red, the black areas are tinged with brown, and the breast is mottled red and black. Young birds also have a duller bill color. Crimson collared Tanager

Vocalizations are high-pitched and sibilant. There are several calls; one rendered as ''ssii-p'' is given both when perched and in flight. The song is jerky and consists of two-to-four-note phrases separated by pauses, ''tueee-teew, chu-chee-wee-chu, teweee''.

Distribution and habitat

The crimson-collared tanager ranges from southern

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

and northern

Oaxaca ) , population_note = , population_rank = 10th , timezone1 = CST , utc_offset1 = −6 , timezone1_DST = CDT , utc_offset1_DST = −5 , postal_code_type = Postal ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

through the Atlantic slope of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, to the highlands of western

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. It inhabits the edges of humid evergreen forests and second growth, where it is often seen in pairs at middle to upper levels.

Behaviour

Breeding

The nest is a cup built of such materials as moss, rootlets and strips of large leaves such as

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...

or ''

Heliconia ''Heliconia'', derived from the Greek word (), is a genus of flowering plants in the monotypic family Heliconiaceae. Most of the ca 194 known species are native to the tropical Americas, but a few are indigenous to certain islands of the w ...

'', and is placed at middle height in a tree at a forest edge. The female usually lays two eggs, pale blue with blackish spots.

Conservation

Because the species is not threatened, the population size is very large and the trend appears to be stable, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1589936 crimson-collared tanager Birds of Central America Birds of Belize crimson-collared tanager Taxa named by René Lesson