Black-headed Tanager - BirdForum Opus

Male of subspecies cyanoptera
Photo © by Luis R
Amaranta, Los Teques, Estado Miranda, Venezuela, June 01, 2013

Stilpnia cyanoptera

Tangara cyanoptera

Identification

13 cm (5 in)
Male

• Black head
• Whitish upperparts
• Black wings with blue flashes
  

Female

• Pale grey head
• Darker grey upperparts
• Greenish wing flashes
• Yellowish underparts

Distribution

Male with less yellow of subspecies cyanoptera
Photo © by NJLarsen
Mountain House, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, 19 August 2023

South America: found in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil.

Taxonomy

This species used to be placed in genus Tangara.

Subspecies

Female
Photo by iainp
Sierra Nevada National Park, Venezuela, July 2010

There are 2 subspecies^[1]:

• T. c. cyanoptera:

• Mountains of northern Colombia to northern Venezuela

• T. c. whitelyi:

• Tepuis of southern Venezuela to Guyana and extreme northern Brazil

Habitat

Scattered trees in moist to moderately humid woodland

Behaviour

Diet

The diet consists of a variety of small fruits, catkins and some arthropods.

Breeding

Their white eggs have grey and brown markings.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved February 2017)
4. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Black-headed Tanager. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 15 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Black-headed_Tanager

External Links

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