The swallow tanager (''Tersina viridis'') is a species of

Neotropic The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus ''Tersina''. It is found widely throughout South America, from eastern Panama to far northern Argentina. The species is sexually dimorphic: the female is a yellow-green and the male a turquoise blue with a small deep black face and upper throat patch.

Taxonomy

The swallow tanager was formally described in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Hirundo viridis''. The type locality is eastern Brazil. The species is now the only member of the genus ''Tersina'' that was introduced in 1819 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from the French ''Tersine'', an unidentified bird described by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The specific epithet ''viridis'' is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "green". A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the tanager family published in 2014 found that the swallow tanager is sister to the honeycreepers in the genus ''

Cyanerpes The typical honeycreepers form a genus ''Cyanerpes'' of small birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. They are found in the tropical New World from Mexico south to Brazil. They occur in the forest canopy, and, as the name implies, they are specia ...

''. Three

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''T. v. grisescens'' Griscom, 1929 – north Colombia * ''T. v. occidentalis'' ( Sclater, PL, 1855) – east Panama and Colombia (except north) east to the Guianas and north Brazil and south to Bolivia (except southeast) and northwest Argentina * ''T. v. viridis'' (Illiger, 1811) – east, south Brazil, southeast Bolivia, Paraguay and northeast Argentina

Description

The swallow tanager is in length with a broad flat bill. This bird is strongly sexually dimorphic. The male is bright turquoise blue with a black face and throat. The turquoise flanks have black barring and the lower belly is white. The female is bright green with dusky-olive barring on the flanks. She lacks the black face mask. They are gregarious but do not associate with other species. They mainly eat fruit but they will also sally after insects from an exposed perch. The swallow tanagers are unique among tanagers in that they will sometimes dig a hole in a bank for a nest.

References

External links

Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the swallow tanagerSwallow Tanager videos
on the Internet Bird Collection * (for

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

) with RangeMap
Swallow Tanager photo gallery
VIREO swallow tanager Birds of South America Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Ecuador Birds of the Guiana Shield Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of Brazil Birds of Bolivia Birds of Paraguay swallow tanager {{Thraupidae-stub