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Fulvous-crested tanager

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Fulvous-crested tanager
Male
Female
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Tachyphonus
Species:
T. surinamus
Binomial name
Tachyphonus surinamus
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms

See text

The fulvous-crested tanager (Tachyphonus surinamus) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

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In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the fulvous-crested tanager in the supplement to his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected Suriname. He used the French name Le merle de Surinam and the Latin name Merula surinamensis.[3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognized by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[4] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson in his Ornithologie.[4] One of these was the fulvous-crested tanager. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Turdus surinamus, and cited Brisson's work.[5]

The IOC, AviList, the Clements taxonomy, and the South American Classification Committee assign the species to the genus Tachyphonus that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[6][2][7][8][9] BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) also initially did so, but in 2016 assigned the fulvous-crested tanager to its own genus Maschalethraupis.[10][11] It retains it there as of late 2025.[12]

The fulvous-crested tanager has these four subspecies:[2]

Description

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The fulvous-crested tanager is 15 to 17 cm (5.9 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 15 to 27 g (0.53 to 0.95 oz). The species has a short, somewhat thin, bill and is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies T. s. surinamus are mostly glossy black. They have a yellow-buff patch in the center of the crown that can be erected as the eponymous crest. They have a buff rump, white on the bend of the wing, buffy white pectoral tufts, long maroon-chestnut to carmine flank feathers, and white underwing coverts. Adult females have a mostly gray head with a yellowish area of variable size around the eye; it often includes a faint dusky line through the eye and usually has olive around it. Their upperparts, wings, and tail are dark olive. Their throat, breast, and flanks are buffy to grayish white with a brownish tinge on the breast and a grayish tinge on the flanks. Their belly and undertail coverts are ochraceous. Juveniles resemble duller and plainer adult females. Both sexes of all subspecies have a dark brown iris, a blackish maxilla, a blue-gray mandible, and dark gray legs.[13]

The other subspecies of the fulvous-crested tanager differ from the nominate and each other thus:[13]

  • T. s. brevipes: male has deep buff rump, white pectoral tufts, and dark rufous flanks; female is paler than nominate with cinnamon-buff to orangish buff underparts and olive-tinged flanks
  • T. s. napensis: like brevipes except male has dark rufous rump
  • T. s. insignis: male has darker tawny rump and paler tawny flanks than nominate; female is like nominate

Distribution and habitat

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The fulvous-crested tanager is a bird of the Amazon Basin and the Guiana Shield. The subspecies are found thus:[13]

  • T. s. surinamus: Venezuela from southeastern Sucre, eastern Monagas, Delta Amacuro, most of Amazonas, and northern Bolívar states[14] east through the Guianas and northern Brazil east of the Negro River and north of the Amazon River
  • T. s. brevipes: from approximately the southeastern half of Colombia[15] south through eastern Ecuador[16] into northeastern Peru to the Amazon and Marañón rivers[17] and east through southern Bolívar in Venezuela[14] and northwestern Brazil north of the Amazon to the Negro
  • T. s. napensis: eastern Peru south of the Amazon and Marañón to northern Junín and central Ucayali departments[17] and east into western Brazil south of the Amazon to the Juruá River
  • T. s. insignis: Brazil south of the Amazon from the Juruá to the Atlantic

The southern limit of the species in Brazil follows a line across Acre, southern Amazonas, central Rondônia, northwestern Mato Grosso, and Pará to the Atlantic in its northeast.[18]

The fulvous-crested tanager inhabits a variety of humid forest landscapes, many of which are on nutrient-deficient soils. These include terra firme and várzea forest, light woodland, and scrubby and brushy areas with rock outcrops.[13] In elevation it reaches 600 m (2,000 ft) in Colombia, 900 m (3,000 ft) in Ecuador, 750 m (2,500 ft) in Peru, 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in Venezuela, and 900 m (3,000 ft) in Brazil.[15][16][17][14][18]

Behavior

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Movement

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The fulvous-crested tanager is a year-round resident.[13]

Feeding

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The fulvous-crested tanager feeds on insects, fruits, and seeds. It forages mainly in the forest's mid- to upper levels and on its edges, usually as pairs or family groups and often as members of a mixed-species feeding flock.[13][17]

Breeding

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The one known fulvous-crested tanager nest was discovered in Brazil's Amazonas state in March and held two young nestlings. The nest was a basket made from twigs with leaves on the outside and a lining of thin rootlets. It was in a fork in a Bactris elegans palm about 1.5 m (5 ft) above the ground. Both parents were attending the brood. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.[13][19]

Vocalization

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The fulvous-crested tanager's song is described as "a series of high hummingbird-like screeches interspersed with rich chip notes: soo-see-soo-see'chip'chip soo-see-soo-see...". Its calls are "high tseet notes and a rapid, rich chatter".[17]

Status

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The IUCN has assessed the fulvous-crested tanager as being of Least Concern. It has an extremely large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. "Forests within the range are contracting slowly due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier."[1] It is considered "locally common" in Colombia, "uncommon but widespread" in Peru, "uncommon to locally fairly common" in Venezuela, and "frequent to uncommon" in Brazil.[15][17][14][18] It is found in many national parks and public and private preserves. "This species range encompasses large areas of intact forest not formally protected, but at low risk of deforestation in the immediate future, ensuring at least the short-term viability of this species."[13]

References

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  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2023). "Fulvous-crested Tanager Maschalethraupis surinama". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2023 e.T22722388A239850973. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T22722388A239850973.en. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (April 2026). "Tanagers and allies". IOC World Bird List. v 15.2. Retrieved 2 August 2026.
  3. ↑ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. Supplement. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 46–47, Plate 3 fig 1. The two stars (**) at the start of the paragraph indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
  4. 1 2 Allen, J.A. (1910). "Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 28: 317–335. hdl:2246/678.
  5. ↑ Linnaeus, Carl (1766). Systema naturae: per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (12th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 297. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  6. ↑ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 33. Retrieved September 11, 2026.
  7. ↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  8. ↑ Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2025. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2025. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved 3 November 2025
  9. ↑ Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, D. F. Lane, L, N. Naka, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 25 July 2026. A classification of the bird species of South America. South American Classification Committee associated with the International Ornithologists' Union. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved 25 July 2026
  10. ↑ BirdLife International (2007) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. [Old] Version 0. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy
  11. ↑ BirdLife International (2016) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. [Old] Version 9. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_90.zip.
  12. ↑ HBW and BirdLife International (2025). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 10. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy#birdlife-s-taxonomic-checklist retrieved 12 October 2025
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hilty, S. L. (2020). Fulvous-crested Tanager (Tachyphonus surinamus), 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.fuctan1.01 retrieved September 11, 2026
  14. 1 2 3 4 Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela (second ed.). Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 751.
  15. 1 2 3 McMullan, Miles; Donegan, Thomas M.; Quevedo, Alonso (2010). Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Bogotá: Fundación ProAves. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-9827615-0-2.
  16. 1 2 Ridgely, Robert S.; Greenfield, Paul J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 657–658. ISBN 978-0-8014-8721-7.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schulenberg, T.S.; Stotz, D.F.; Lane, D.F.; O'Neill, J.P.; Parker, T.A. III (2010). Birds of Peru. Princeton Field Guides (revised and updated ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 550. ISBN 978-0691130231.
  18. 1 2 3 van Perlo, Ber (2009). A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 366–367. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7.
  19. ↑ de Melo, T.N. (2016). Descrição de um ninho de Lanio surinamus com notas sobre cuidado parental. Atualidades Ornitológicas [Description of a Lanio surinamus nest with notes on parental care.]. 190: 18–19. In Portuguese.
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