Palm Tanager

The Story

I photographed this Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) at the Hotel Campestre Resguardos de Paz, near El Paujil, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2020. It is a resident breeder from Nicaragua south to Bolivia, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It lives in semi-open country, including farmland and gardens. 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.

I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6, at 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400. For now, 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