Inti Tanager (Heliothraupis oneilli)

Identification & Behavior: ~19 cm (7.5 in) Male Inti Tanagers have a warm yellow bushy crest flanked by broad black superciliary stripes. Their bill is reddish-pink. The sides of the head, throat, and breast are bright yellow to yellow-orange, transitioning to yellow-olive on the belly. The back, wings, and tail are yellow-olive. The female is a yellow-olive version of the male without the black superciliary and crest. The bill is bicolor, with the culmen brownish and the lower mandible orange-brown. According to observations in Peru, this tanager appears to be associated with Guadua Bamboo and similar vegetation, often accompanied by mixed species flocks. The male is easily recognized, whereas the female resembles female Piranga tanagers such as Hepatic and Summer Tanagers.

Status: The Inti Tanager was described in 2021. There is only one known population in Peru, below San Pedro village on the Cusco-Manu Road at approximately 1400 m. This population may be rare and seasonal. It appears that the Inti Tanager migrates to its breeding grounds in deciduous and semi deciduous savanna woodlands of the Machariapo Valley in La Paz, Bolivia, at elevations ranging from 750 meters to 1500 meters.

Name in Spanish: Tangara Inti.

Sub-species: Inti Tanager (Heliothraupis oneilli), (Lane, Aponte, Terrill, Rheindt, Klicka, Rosenberg, Schmitt, and Burns. 2021).

Meaning of Name: Heliothraupis: Gr. helios= sun and thraupis= an unknown small bird, perhaps some sort of finch. oneilli: in honor of John Patton O’Neill (b. 1942) American  ornithologist, field-worker, bird artist.

See more of the Family Thraupidae