Passerini's Tanager, Ramphocelus passerinii, is a medium-sized passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

. This tanager

Tanager

The tanagers comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has an American distribution.There were traditionally about 240 species of tanagers, but the taxonomic treatment of this family's members is currently in a state of flux...

 is a resident breeder in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 lowlands from southern Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 to western Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

. This species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 was formerly known as the Scarlet-rumped Tanager, but was renamed when the distinctive form found on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 and Panama was reclassified as a separate species, the Cherrie's Tanager

Cherrie's Tanager

The Cherrie's Tanager, Ramphocelus costaricensis, is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder in the Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica and western Panama. This bird was formerly known as the Scarlet-rumped Tanager, but was split as a separate species from the Caribbean form,...

, Ramphocelus costaricensis. While most authorities have accepted this split, there are notable exceptions (e.g. the Howard and Moore checklist

Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World

The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World is a book by Richard Howard and Alick Moore which presents a list of the bird species of the world...

).

This species was named for Carlo Passerini

Carlo Passerini

Carlo Passerini was an Italianentomologist. He was Curator at the R. Natural History Museum in Florence.His collection of Coleoptera is in the Paolo Savi Museum in Pisa ....

, a professor at the Museum of Zoology of the University of Florence

University of Florence

The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...

.

Description

The adult Passerini's Tanager is 16 cm long and weighs 31 g. The adult male is mainly black except for a scarlet rump, silvery bill and dark red iris. The female has a grey head, olive upperparts becoming brighter and paler on the rump, brownish wings and tail and ochre underparts. The female's plumage is the one that differs most from Cherrie's Tanager. Immatures have an orange tint to the underparts and rump, and look like a paler and duller female Cherrie's Tanager.

The Passerini's Tanager's call is a sharp wac. Its song consists of a few clear pleasant notes, delivered in shorter phrases than that of its Pacific relative.

Ecology

It is very common from sea level to 1200 m altitude, and occurs occasionally up to 1700 m. The preferred habitat is semi-open areas including light second growth, woodland edges, gardens and pasture with bushes.

Passerini's Tanagers occur in pairs, small groups, or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock

Mixed-species feeding flock

A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...

, and up to a dozen birds may roost together in dense thickets at night. This species feeds on certain small fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, usually swallowed whole, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s and spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

s.

The cup nest is built up to 6 m high in a tree. The normal clutch is two pale blue or grey eggs, marked with black, brown or lilac. This species will sometimes raise two broods in a season