Black-and-yellow tanager

Black-and-yellow tanager
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Chrysothlypis
Species:
C. chrysomelas
Binomial name
Chrysothlypis chrysomelas
Synonyms

Tachyphonus chrysomelas (protonym)

The black-and-yellow tanager (Chrysothlypis chrysomelas) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama.[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

The black-and-yellow tanager was formally described in 1869 with the binomial Tachyphonus chrysomelas.[3] By 1912 it had been reassigned to its present genus Chrysothlypis, which it shares with the scarlet-and-white tanager (C. salmoni).[4] Some taxonomic systems incorrectly modified the specific epithet to chrysomelaena[5], but later restored the original to conform to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.[6][7]

The black-and-yellow tanager has three subspecies, the nominate C. c. chrysomelas (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1869), C. c. titanota (Storrs, 1981), and C. c. ocularis (Nelson, 1912).[2]

Description

The black-and-yellow tanager is 12 cm (4.7 in)[8] to 13 cm (5.1 in)[9] long. It weighs 11 to 15 g (0.39 to 0.53 oz). It has a thin, sharply pointed bill and resembles a New World warbler. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies are mostly bright yellow with a thin black ring around the eye and jet-black hindneck, mantle, upper back, wings, and tail. Adult females have a greenish olive head, upperparts, and tail. Their wings' flight feathers are dusky with greenish olive edges. Their throat and breast are yellow, their flanks and sides yellow with an olive-green tinge, their undertail coverts yellowish, and their underwing coverts white.[8]

Males of subspecies C. c. ocularis have partially black lores. Females are brighter overall than the nominate with more uniform greenish yellow underparts. Males of C. c. titanota are identical to the nominate. Females have mostly white underparts with a faint yellowish band across the breast and grayish flanks. In all subspecies immature males resemble adult females but with brighter underparts. Both sexes of all subspecies have a brown iris, a black bill, and blackish legs and feet.[8]

Distribution

The black-and-yellow tanager has a patchy distribution. Subspecies C. c. titanota is the northernmost. It is found on the Caribbean slopes of Costa Rica's Cordillera Central and Cordillera de Talamanca from Alajuela Province to, and possibly slightly into, far western Panama.[9][8] The nominate subspecies is found intermittently in Panama from western Chiriquí Province east to western Panamá Province.[8] Subspecies C. c. ocularis is found on the Caribbean slope from Cerro Jefe in western Panamá Province and on the Pacific slope from far eastern Panamá Province south slightly into extreme northwestern Colombia on Cerro Tacarcuna.[8][10]

The black-and-yellow tanager primarily inhabits the canopy and edges of primary and mature secondary evergreen forest in the upper tropical and lower subtropical zones. It also occurs much less often in forest clearings that have tall trees.[8][5] Sources differ on its elevational range. Two state it is 350 to 1,600 m (1,100 to 5,200 ft)[8][5] while another says 500 to 1,250 m (1,600 to 4,100 ft)[11]. In Costa Rica it ranges between 400 to 1,200 m (1,300 to 3,900 ft).[9]

Behavior

Movement

The black-and-yellow tanager is a year-round resident.[8]

Feeding

The black-and-yellow tanager feeds on arthropods and fruit; Miconia berries apparently are an important part of its diet. It typically forages in pairs and groups of up to six individuals and frequently joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It takes arthropod prey by gleaning from leaves and branches (sometimes hanging upside down to do so), by probing clusters of dead leaves, in mid-air with a short flutter-flight, and by briefly hovering.[8]

Breeding

The only known nest of a black-and-yellow tanager was a cup made from thin rootlets lined with fungal rhizomorphs; it had a layer of dead leaves between them and green moss on the outside. It was near the end of a tree branch about 8 m (25 ft) above the ground. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.[8]

Vocalization

The black-and-yellow tanager's song has seldom been recorded. Its call, which is often given in flight, is "a sharp, sibilant tsee or tseeeut like that of a hummingbird (Trochilidae), singly, doubled or followed by several shorter notes, e.g. tsew tsu-tsu-tsu".[8]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the black-and-yellow tanager as being of Least Concern. It has a large range; its estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It is considered uncommon to locally fairly common overall[8] and fairly common in Costa Rica[9]. Though it occurs in several protected areas, "its range is increasingly fragmented, especially in Costa Rica and W Panama, where large areas of lowland and foothill forest have been converted to agricultural purposes, e.g. bananas and cattle, and are being lost to expanding human settlement".[8]

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International. (2021). "Black-and-yellow Tanager Chrysothlypis chrysomelas". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021 e.T22722281A137103514. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22722281A137103514.en. Retrieved 15 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. ↑ Sclater, Philip Lutley; Salvin, Osbert (1869). "Descriptions of three new Species of Tanagers from Veragua". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (in Latin and English). 1869: 440. Retrieved August 15, 2026.
  4. ↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. pp. 571–572.
  6. ↑ David, N.; Gosselin M. (2002). "Gender agreement of avian species names". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 122: 14–49.
  7. ↑ Richard C. Banks, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., James D. Rising, and Douglas F. Stotz. "Forty-fourth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds". The Auk 2003, vol. 120:923–931 retrieved March 31, 2026
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Hilty, S. L. (2020). Black-and-yellow Tanager (Chrysothlypis chrysomelas), 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.baytan2.01 retrieved August 15, 2026
  9. 1 2 3 4 Garrigues, Richard; Dean, Robert (2007). The Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca: Zona Tropical/Comstock/Cornell University Press. pp. 282–283. ISBN 978-0-8014-7373-9.
  10. ↑ Ruiz-Ovalle, J.M. and Hurtado-Guerra, A. (2014). [First records of Bangsia arcaei and Chrysothlypis chrysomelas (Thraupidae) for Colombia]. Orn. Colombiana 14: 130–135. In Spanish with English summary.
  11. ↑ vanPerlo, Ber (2006). Birds of Mexico and Central America. Princeton Illustrated Checklists. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. Plate and map 89.16. ISBN 0691120706.
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