The white-shouldered tanager (''Loriotus luctuosus'') is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder from

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

to Panama, South America south to Ecuador and southern Brazil, and on Trinidad. It occurs in forests and

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

plantations. The bulky cup nest is built in low vegetation, and the female lays three brown-blotched cream eggs. White-shouldered tanagers are 14 cm long and weigh 14 g. They are long-tailed and with a mostly black stout pointed bill. The adult male is glossy black, apart from white underwing coverts and a conspicuous white shoulder patch. The shoulder patch is the most obvious difference from the similar but larger

white-lined tanager The white-lined tanager (''Tachyphonus rufus'') is a medium-sized passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is a resident breeder from Costa Rica south to northern Argentina, and on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Taxonomy The whi ...

, in which the smaller white area is rarely visible except in flight. Females and immatures have olive upperparts, yellow underparts and a grey head and neck. These are restless birds which eat mainly insects, including

stick insect The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as ...

s, but will occasionally take fruit. They often associate with other

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

birds in wandering feeding flocks. The white-shouldered tanager's song is a fast repetitive '.

References

* ''Birds of Venezuela'' by Hilty, * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3114803

white-shouldered tanager The white-shouldered tanager (''Loriotus luctuosus'') is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder from Honduras to Panama, South America south to Ecuador and southern Brazil, and on Trinidad. It occurs in forests and The ...

Birds of Honduras Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Panama Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Ecuador Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Birds of the Guianas Birds of the Amazon rainforest

Birds of Brazil Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN