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Yellow-backed tanager

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Yellow-backed tanager
Hemithraupis flavicollis insignis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Hemithraupis
Species:
H. flavicollis
Binomial name
Hemithraupis flavicollis
(Vieillot, 1818)

The yellow-backed tanager (Hemithraupis flavicollis) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Panama and every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

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The yellow-backed tanager was formally described in 1818 by Louis Pierre Vieillot with the binomial Nemosia flavicollis.[3] By 1912 it had been reassigned to its current genus Hemithraupis.[4][note 1] The genus name Hemithraupis combines the Ancient Greek words hēmi, meaning "half" or "small" and thraupis, which refers to an unidentified small bird mentioned by Aristotle. In ornithology, it is typically used to refer to tanagers. The specific epithet flavicollis is derived from Latin, meaning "yellow-necked".[5][6]

The yellow-backed tanager has these 11 subspecies:[2]

Description

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The yellow-backed tanager is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 11 to 15 g (0.39 to 0.53 oz). It is a smallish tanager with a relatively slender bill. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies H. f. flavicollis have a mostly brownish black head and upper back. Their lower back and rump are bright yellow. Their uppertail coverts are mostly bright yellow with the longest being brownish black. Their wings are mostly brownish black with a thin white band on the outer web of the outer primaries; the white shows as a small patch on the closed wing. Their tail is brownish black. Their throat and adjoining sides of the neck are bright yellow. Their underparts are mostly off-white with a gray tinge and sometimes some black mottling on the sides. Their undertail coverts are bright yellow. Adult females have an olive-green head and upperparts. Their upperwing coverts and flight feathers are darker with yellowish green edges. They have mostly yellow underparts; the color is brightest on the throat and breast and the flanks have an olive tinge. Both sexes of all subspecies have a dark brown iris, a dusky maxilla, a pinkish to yellow mandible, and dark gray legs and feet.[7]

The other subspecies of the yellow-backed tanager differ from the nominate and each other thus:[7]

  • H. f. ornata: male is deeper yellow than nominate on rump, throat, and undertail coverts
  • H. f. albigularis: male has white central throat, wide yellow malar stripe, and much black spotting on the sides of breast; female has grayish to whitish lower breast and belly
  • H. f. peruana: male has short yellow line above the lores, a yellow arc under the eye, and yellow tips on median upperwing coverts that show as a small wing bar
  • H. f. aurigularis: male has more black mottling than nominate
  • H. f. hellmayri: male's yellow throat extends to central breast and it has dense black mottling on sides of breast
  • H. f. sororia: male has paler yellow throat and more black mottling than nominate
  • H. f. centralis: male has deeper black back and paler yellow throat than nominate with breast sides scalloped and barred with black
  • H. f. obidensis: male has more brownish black upperparts and less intense yellow on rump, throat, and undertail coverts than nominate; female is more greenish overall than nominate
  • H. f. melanoxantha: male like nominate; female brighter overall with more yellow on underparts than nominate
  • H. f. insignis: male like nominate; female has browner upperparts than nominate

Distribution and habitat

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The yellow-backed tanager has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:[7]

The yellow-backed tanager primarily inhabits terra firme forest, to a lesser extent várzea forest, and even less frequently forest edges, plantations, and clearings with trees.[7] In elevation it ranges up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Panama and Colombia and is mostly below 700 m (2,300 ft) in Ecuador.[12][8][13] In Peru it is mostly below 750 m (2,500 ft) but locally reaches 1,350 m (4,400 ft).[9] In Venezuela it reaches 550 m (1,800 ft) and in eastern Brazil is found on mountain slopes between 900 and 1,800 m (3,000 and 5,900 ft).[10][11]

Behavior

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Movement

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The yellow-backed tanager is a year-round resident.[7]

Feeding

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The yellow-backed tanager feeds on arthropods and fruit. It forages in pairs and family groups and almost always as members of a mixed-species feeding flock. It forages mostly in the forest canopy by gleaning while perched and less frequently by hover-gleaning or with a short sally.[7][13][10]

Breeding

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The yellow-backed tanager's breeding season has not been defined but activity has been noted in January, April to June, and September in Colombia. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.[7]

Vocalization

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While foraging the yellow-backed tanager makes "a high tsick and tut and tyoo tsick" calls.[10] In Peru its calls are "a rich chew and a higher tsew and seew".[9] In Brazil what might be either a song or call is a "single or series of nasal, upslurred sreeeh notes".[11]

Status

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The IUCN has assessed the yellow-backed tanager as being of Least Concern. It has an extremely large range; its estimated population of at least five million mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It is considered "fairly common" in Colombia and Venezuela, "uncommon but widely distributed" in Peru, and "frequent to uncommon" in Brazil.[8][10][9][11] It "[o]ccurs in many protected areas, and vast areas of appropriate habitat lie in unprotected areas within its range". However, the subspecies "inhabiting Panama–NW Colombia region (races ornatus and albigularis) and SE Brazil coastal corridor (melanoxantha and insignis) live in areas that are heavily deforested, and relatively little habitat in these regions has any kind of protected status".[7]

Notes

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  1. ↑ Subspecies ornata, described as Hemithraupis flavicollis ornata in 1912, was the earliest to be noted as belonging to H. flavicollis.

References

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  1. 1 2 BirdLife International. (2021). "Yellow-backed Tanager Hemithraupis flavicollis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021 e.T22722278A167751792. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22722278A167751792.en. Retrieved 17 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (April 2026). "Tanagers and allies". IOC World Bird List. v 15.2. Retrieved 2 August 2026.
  3. ↑ Vieillot, Louis-Pierre (1818). Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, appliquée aux arts, à l'agriculture, à l'économie rurale et domestique, à la médecine, etc (in French). Vol. XXII. Paris: Chez Deterville. p. 491. Retrieved August 17, 2026.
  4. ↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  5. ↑ James A. Jobling (2026). "The Key to Scientific Names: Hemithraupis". Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved August 17, 2026.
  6. ↑ James A. Jobling (2026). "The Key to Scientific Names: flavicollis". Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved August 17, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hilty, S. L. (2020). Yellow-backed Tanager (Hemithraupis flavicollis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.yebtan1.01 retrieved August 17, 2026
  8. 1 2 3 4 McMullan, Miles; Donegan, Thomas M.; Quevedo, Alonso (2010). Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Bogotá: Fundación ProAves. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-9827615-0-2.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Schulenberg, T.S.; Stotz, D.F.; Lane, D.F.; O'Neill, J.P.; Parker, T.A. III (2010). Birds of Peru. Princeton Field Guides (revised and updated ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 548. ISBN 978-0691130231.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela (second ed.). Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 747.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 van Perlo, Ber (2009). A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 362–363. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7.
  12. ↑ vanPerlo, Ber (2006). Birds of Mexico and Central America. Princeton Illustrated Checklists. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. Plate and map 89.15. ISBN 0691120706.
  13. 1 2 Ridgely, Robert S.; Greenfield, Paul J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 623–624. ISBN 978-0-8014-8721-7.
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