Turquoise tanager
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Turquoise tanager
| image = Saíra-de-bando.jpg
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| taxon = Tangara mexicana
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1766)
| synonyms = Tanagra mexicana {{small|Linnaeus, 1766}}
| range_map = Tangara mexicana map.svg
| range_map_caption = Range
}}
The turquoise tanager (Tangara mexicana) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is a resident bird from Trinidad, much of Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela, and south to Bolivia. Despite its scientific name, it is not found in Mexico. It is restricted to areas with humid forest, with its primary distribution being the Amazon. It was formerly treated as being conspecific with the white-bellied tanager which is found in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil.
It occurs in forest, woodland, and cultivation. The bulky cup nest is built in a tree or shrub, and the female incubates three brown-blotched grey-green eggs.
These are social birds usually found in groups. They eat a wide variety of fruit and also take insects and other arthropods,{{cite web| url=https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Tangara_mexicana%20-%20Turquoise%20Tanager.pdf | title=Tangara mexicana (Turquoise Tanager) | publisher=The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago | access-date=2024-02-11}} often gleaned from twigs.
Taxonomy
The turquoise tanager was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tanagra mexicana.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1766 | title=Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=12th | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | place=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | page=315 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946511 }} His description was principally based on Mathurin Jacques Brisson's Le tangara blue de Cayenne that he had described and illustrated in 1760.{{ cite book | last=Brisson | first=Mathurin Jacques | author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson | year=1760 | title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés | volume=3 | language=French, Latin | page=6, [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35953060 Plate 1 fig. 3] | place=Paris | publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35953025 }} The type locality is Cayenne in French Guiana.{{ cite book | editor-last=Paynter | editor-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1970 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=13 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=361 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483596 }} The turquoise tanager is now placed in the genus Tangara that was introduced by Brisson.{{ cite book | last=Brisson | first=Mathurin Jacques | author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson | year=1760 | title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés | language=French, Latin | place=Paris | publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche | at=[https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36010434 Vol. 1 p. 36] and [https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35953028 Vol. 3 p. 3] }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=January 2023 | title=Tanagers and allies | work=IOC World Bird List Version 13.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/tanagers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=9 February 2023}}
Four subspecies are recognised:
- T. m. vieilloti (Sclater, PL, 1857) – Trinidad
- T. m. media (Berlepsch & Hartert, 1902) – east Colombia and Venezuela
- T. m. mexicana (Linnaeus, 1766) – the Guianas to central Brazil
- T. m. boliviana (Bonaparte, 1851) – southeast Colombia to east Ecuador, east Peru, west Brazil and north Bolivia
The white-bellied tanager (Tangara brasiliensis) was formerly treated as a subspecies.
Description
File:Turquoise Tanager (5614386335).jpg
Adult turquoise tanagers are {{cvt|14|cm}} long and weigh 20 g. They are long-tailed and with a dark stout pointed bill. The adult is mainly dark blue and black, with turquoise edging to the primaries. Most races have yellow lower underparts, but this is paler, more cream, in the nominate subspecies found in north-eastern South America. The Trinidadian race, T. m. vieiloti, has a darker blue head and breast and more vividly yellow underparts than the mainland taxa. Their song is a fast squeaky chatter tic-tic-tic-tic-tic.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Tangara-mexicana Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the turquoise tanager]
- [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=9250 Turquoise Tanager videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20001026161414/http://www.bird-stamps.org/cspecies/20118800.htm Stamps]}} (for Suriname) with RangeMap–(shows the disjunct range in coastal SEast Brazil)
- [http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=turquoise+tanager&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 Turquoise Tanager photo gallery] VIREO
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Category:Birds of the Amazon rainforest