Red-necked Tanager

About the Red-necked Tanager

The red-necked tanager (Tangara cyanocephala) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and heavily degraded former forest.

The red-necked tanager was first described by Philipp Müller in 1776 as Tanagra cyanocephala. There are three recognised subspecies of the red-necked tanager: T. c. cearensis (Cory 1916) – differs from T. c. corallina "in having the crown darker and more purplish blue, the shorter upper tail coverts conspicuously tipped with bright light blue (forming a band about 5 mm. in width), pale blue separating the black of the forehead from the dark blue of the crown only slightly indicated, and size somewhat larger."

T. c. corallina (Berlepsch 1903) T. c. cyanocephala (Müller 1776) It is mostly green with a black back and a blue head and throat. Plumage is described as "brilliant and varied, including areas of bright red, bright green, blue, and black." They can be observed in mixed-species flocks along with green-headed tanagers. Wikipedia →