Flame-crested Tanager (Tachyphonus cristatus)
Male Flame-crested Tanager, Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil, July 2002 - click for larger image Brazil

The Flame-crested Tanager is found throughout most of the Amazon Basin, south Venezuela and the Guianas with a second, disjunct population in eastern Brazil.

It inhabits forest, forest borders and clearings where it usually forages in the canopy or mid-storey. It eats insects, fruit, berries and seeds.

Male Flame-crested Tanager, Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil, July 2002 - click for larger image The male is mostly black with a broad, flat yellow and orange crest. There is a variation of crest colour amongst the 9 sub-species. Photos 1, 2 and 3 are of the south-east Brazil sub-species, T. c. brunneus while photos 4, 5 and 6 are, I think, of the sub-species T. c. pallidigula, literally "pale throat".

You can usually see some white at the shoulder and this shows as white under-wings in flight. The rump is buff as is the throat although this might not be very noticeable in some lights and some sub-species have smaller throat patches.

Male Flame-crested Tanager, Cristalino Lodge, Mato Grosso, Brazil, April 2003 - click for larger image The female is olive-brown above with a white throat and rich ochraceous underparts. Some sub-species have a chestnut tinge to the crown and rump as can be seen in photo 6.

There are illustrations in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 1, Plate 19; and Hilty & Brown, Plate 51.
Male Flame-crested Tanager, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image
Male Flame-crested Tanager, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image
Female Flame-crested Tanager, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image
Previous Page Back to Index Next Page
If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page.