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Description
Length: 18
- 19 cm (7 -7.5 in) Very beautiful and colorful birds, similar
to the Brazilian tanager; males with intense red plumage on head
and most underparts, black mask from forehead and throat to behind
eyes; black above with red lower back. Belly black. (Color develops
in second year.) Shiny white base of lower mandible; beak brown.
Immature males brown, as are females, but with black beak.
Range
South
America: Upper Amazon only (eastern Colombia, to southeastern
Peru and Amazonian Brazil)
Habitat
Low thick
forests; flooded forest edges and along streams. Stays close to
water.
Niche
Feeds primarily
on fruits, leaves, buds and nectar. This species likes fruits
of cecropia trees; they perch upside down on spikes and rip off
pieces of pulp. Important in seed dispersal in forest, as apparently
Cecropia seeds germinate better after passage through
bird intestines. Lives in pairs of groups of three to twelve in
low or mid-levels of forest in forest edges; often associated
with olive-green tanager. Noisy. Feathers used by indigenous peoples
for decoration.
Life History
Males display
brightly-colored plumage during breeding season, and lift their
heads vertically to exhibit the white underside of the bill to
the female. Female only builds the nest. Produce two or three
eggs. Parents bring meals in their bills to hatchlings; do not
regurgitate as do some other tanager genera. Often there are "helper"
birds, which may be older offspring of the parents. Nests may
be parasitized by cowbirds.
Status
Reasonably
common in habitat.
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