Palm Tanager

The Story

I photographed this Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) at the Mirador Turístico Don Yo, on the old road from Villavicencio to Bogotá, Colombia, in January 2020. It is a resident breeder from Nicaragua south to Bolivia, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It builds a bulky cup nest in a tree, usually a palm, or under the eaves of a house. Palm tanagers are social, restless birds that eat many kinds of small fruit, plus some nectar, flower petals and insects. It shows a yellow wing bar in flight, and its song is fast and squeaky.

I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. IUCN lists the Palm Tanager as Least Concern, and its population appears to be stable.

The bird

The Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) belongs to the family Thraupidae (Tanagers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.

Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)

Conservation

Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List