Yellow-backed Tanager (Hemithraupis flavicollis)

Identification & Behavior: ~13.5 cm (5.2 in). The male Yellow-backed Tanager has black upperparts and bright yellow rump and undertail coverts. Birds on the north side of the Amazon and lower Marañón rivers have a yellow wing bar (peruana). The bill is mostly yellow. The throat is yellow. The underparts are white with a gray tinge on the breast and flanks. The female is yellow-olive above and yellow below with a mostly dull yellow bill. It forages in the canopy of mature forest often along with mixed species flocks. The female is similar to a female  Guira Tanager but is larger and has an olive head without yellow lores and yellow eye ring often present on a female Guira Tanager.

Status: The Yellow-backed Tanager is uncommon and widespread in Amazonia where it is known to range up to 750 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Tangara de Dorso Amarillo.

Sub-species: Yellow-backed Tanager (Hemithraupis flavicollis peruana), Bonaparte, 1851.  E of Andes in Colombia (from Meta) S through E Ecuador to Peru N of R Marañón and R Amazon (Amazonas and Loreto).
(Hemithraupis flavicollis sororia), J. T. Zimmer, 1947.  N & E Peru S of R Marañón.
(Hemithraupis flavicollis centralis), (Hellmayr), 1907.  SE Peru, N & C Bolivia and SC Brazil (E to N Mato Grosso).

Meaning of Name: Hemithraupis: Gr. Hemi, hemisus = half, small and thraupis= unknown small bird, perhaps some sort of finch. flavicollis: L. flavus= golden-yellow and collis, collum= necked, throated.

See more of the Family Thraupidae