Speckled Tanager

The Story

I made this photo of a Speckled Tanager (Ixothraupis guttata), of the subspecies tolimae, at Fincas Verdes in San Antonio, Tolima, Colombia. It is a resident breeder in Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and northern Brazil. It is a social bird that eats mainly fruit and some insects. Its small cup nest is built in a tree, and the usual clutch is two brown-blotched white eggs. Its flight call is a weak, metallic tsip. Birds recorded around San Antonio include threatened species such as the Yellow-eared Parrot and the Spot-winged Parrotlet.

I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800. IUCN lists the Speckled Tanager as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.

The bird

The Speckled Tanager (Ixothraupis guttata) 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 2021), with the population trend listed as decreasing (listed by IUCN as Tangara guttata). Source: IUCN Red List