A small brightly colored bird covered in heavily streaked, iridescent pastel tones of yellow and blue!

Meet the Gilt-edged Tanger

The gilt-edged tanager (Tangara cyanoventris), is a species of bird in the Thraupidae family. The male of this species is easy to spot with his unstreaked bright yellow head. He also has a heavy streaked bright yellow back, black forehead, and throat.

His chest and belly are an almost iridescent blue, wings and tail a luminous olive green.

Females look similar to the males, but sometimes not as brightly colored.

This eye-catching bird is endemic to, and only found in Brazil.

These birds like to inhabit and forage in the upper tree canopy of lowland evergreen and secondary forested areas.

Gilt-edged tanager like to spend their time in the upper canopy foraging for insects. However, fruit and berries form the main part of their diet.

The female usually builds a  well concealed cup nest and lays two brown or lilac-speckled white eggs. These hatch in 13–14 days and the chicks fledge in a further 15–16 days. The male and female feed the nestlings on insects and fruit. During the breeding season, young birds from previous broods have been observed helping the mated pair at their nest.

This species is not classified as threatened, since it has a large range and the population trend seems to be stable. However, habitat in the Atlantic Forest is increasingly fragmented, and most of the population is found on protected land.