Gray-headed Tanager
Eucometis penicillata
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyThraupidae (Tanagers and Allies)
- GenusEucometis
- SpeciesEucometis penicillata (Gray-headed Tanager)
About the Gray-headed Tanager
The grey-headed tanager (Eucometis penicillata) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Mexico, every Central American country except El Salvador, and every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, French Guiana, and Uruguay.
The grey-headed tanager was formally described in 1825 by the German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix under the binomial name Tanagra penicillata. Spix did not specify a type locality but this was later designated as Fonte Boa in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. The grey-headed tanager is now the only species in the genus Eucometis that was introduced by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1856. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek eukomēs meaning "with lovely hair". The specific epithet penicillata is from the Latin diminutive of peniculus meaning "brush".
Within the Thraupidae the grey-headed tanager is a member of the subfamily Tachyphoninae and is the sister species to the black-goggled tanager (Trichothraupis melanops). The grey-headed tanager has these seven subspecies
E. p. pallida Berlepsch, 1888 E. p. spodocephalus (Bonaparte, 1853) E. p. stictothorax... Wikipedia →
Closest Relatives at Chagres National Park
Crimson-backed Tanager
Ramphocelus dimidiatus
Blue-gray Tanager
Thraupis episcopus
Golden-hooded Tanager
Stilpnia larvata
Bay-headed Tanager
Tangara gyrola
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Tiaris olivaceus
Palm Tanager
Thraupis palmarum
Plain-colored Tanager
Tangara inornata
Green Honeycreeper
Chlorophanes spiza
Variable Seedeater
Sporophila corvina
Shining Honeycreeper
Cyanerpes lucidus
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Cyanerpes cyaneus
Blue Dacnis
Dacnis cayana
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.