The
yellow-backed tanager (
Hemithraupis flavicollis) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela; also extreme eastern Panama in Central America. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and heavily degraded former forest.
Etymology: The genus name
Hemithraupis combines the Ancient Greek word
hēmi, meaning "half" or "small" with the Ancient Greek word
thraupis, which refers to an unidentified small bird mentioned by Aristotle. In ornithology, it is typically used to refer to tanagers.
Flavicollis is derived from Latin, meaning "yellow-backed".
Taxonomy: The yellow-backed tanager was described in 1818 by Louis Pierre Vieillot, who placed it in the genus Nemosia. It was later placed in its current genus,
Hemithraupis. There are currently 11 recognized subspecies.
- H. f. flavicollis - (Vieillot, 1818): Suriname, French Guiana, and northern Brazil
- H. f. ornata - (Nelson, 1912): Darién region of Panama and northwestern Colombia
- H. f. albigularis - (Sclater, 1855): Parts of the Sinú, Cauca, and Magdalena valleys in Colombia
- H. f. peruana - (Bonaparte, 1851): Colombia, east Ecuador, and northeast Peru
- H. f. aurigularis - (Cherrie, 1916): Southeast Colombia, southern Venezuela, and northern Brazil
- H. f. hellmayri - (Berlepsch, 1912): Southeast Venezuela to Guyana
- H. f. sororia - (Zimmer, 1947): Northern Peru south of the Marañón River
- H. f. centralis - (Hellmayr, 1907): Southeast Peru, northern Bolivia, and central Brazil
- H. f. obidensis - (Parkes, Humphrey, 1963): North bank of the Amazon River in the state of Pará in Brazil
- H. f. melanoxantha - (Lichtenstein, 1823): Pernambuco and Bahia in Brazil
- H. f. insignis - (Sclater, 1856): Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil
The yellow-backed tanager is a relatively small tanager. It has a body mass of 12.9 g and a tail length of around 5 cm with the females having a slightly shorter tail. Like many tanagers, the yellow-backed tanager is sexually dimorphic, with vibrantly coloured males and duller females. While the males of different subspecies vary, most have a black head, neck, wings, and tail; a bright yellow throat, vent, and back; and a white breast, belly, and undertail coverts. Females of all subspecies are bright yellow on the throat, rump, median coverts, and breast, with an olive crown, neck, back, belly, and tail. Both sexes have silvery-grey legs and a bill with a dark upper mandible and a yellowish-orange lower mandible, which is more boldly coloured on the males. It makes many different calls and songs, consisting mostly of high-pitched chirps and trills, as well as a buzzing call that the male makes while attempting to initiate copulation.
Status: The yellow-backed tanager is currently assessed by the IUCN as Least Concern. BirdLife International estimates the population at 5–50 million, also saying that the species is undergoing a moderate decline. Despite this, it is still a fairly common bird within its range.