A tiny bird that is well and truly a rainbow of color, covered brilliant shades of copper, blue, green, white, yellow, and red!
Meet the Chestnut-backed tanager
The chestnut-backed tanager (Stilpnia preciosa), is a species of bird in the Thraupidae family. The male of this species has a shimmering rufous crown fading to a more coppery tone along his back. His rump is yellowish, his tail, wings, and back black with blue edging. Most of his chest and belly are blue-green with yellow on his central belly and undertail covers dark buff.
His wing covers are white, with black lores on his head continuing around his eyes.
The female is more or less a duller version of the male with a more greenish upperside and underparts with under tail coverts washed-out cinnamon.
PH๏τo Courtesy of Joao Quental / CC BY 2.0
These birds are endemic to and found in southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, eastern Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Chestnut-backed tanagers prefer to live in and around forests and forest edges up to around 1000m in alтιтude.
Chestnut-backed tanagers dine on a wide variety of fruit including domesticated varieties, while also taking the time hunting for insects in the canopy. They also readily join mixed-species flocks while foraging.
Little is known about the breeding process of this species other than one nest-site in the Rio Grande do Sul around 10 m up in thick fronds of an araucaria tree. There was no other information.
The Chestnut-backed tanager is not in any current danger and is plentiful in the areas that it resides in. Further studies show that this animal is non-invasive, which simply means that it will not invade areas other than its own region.
