Silvery Tanager (Stilpnia viridicollis)

Identification & Behavior: ~13 cm (5.1 in). The male Silvery Tanager (a.k.a Silver-backed Tanager) has a black top of the head, underparts, and tail. The mantle, rump, and flanks are silver of bluish-silver. The female has a brown top of the head and green upperparts and underparts. Both sexes have a coppery throat, more saturated in the male. It forages in the canopy and midstory of humid montane forest in pairs or along with mixed species flocks. It is distinguished from the similar Green-throated Tanager by having a silverback, rump, and flanks and by the coppery throat in both sexes.

Status: The Silvery Tanager is common in montane forests of the east and west (Piura and Cajamarca) slopes of the Andes at elevations ranging between 900-2900 m. It also occurs in Ec and Bo.

Name in Spanish:Tangara Plateado.

Sub-species: Silvery Tanager (Stilpnia viridicollis fulvigula), (Berlepsch and Stolzmann), 1906. Andes in S Ecuador (W slope in El Oro and W Loja, also old record from Azuay; E slope in extreme S Zamora-Chinchipe) and N Peru (adjacent E slope in S to Lambayeque and Cajamarca, and on both slopes of dry W Andes).
(Stilpnia viridicollis viridicollis), (Taczanowski), 1884.  E slope of Andes of Peru S of R Marañón (Amazonas S, discontinuously, to Puno) and W Bolivia (near Tokoaque, in La Paz).

Meaning of Name: Stilpnia: Gr. Stilpnos= glistening, glittering. viridicollis: L. viridis, virere= green, to be green and collis, collum= throated, necked.

Formerly known a Tangara viridicollis (2018).

See more of the Family Thraupidae