ML131906621

Age and sex

Adult Female - X

Observation details

This was an unusually colored bird for a tanager, but it was also relatively colorful for a bird that generally had subtle patterns. The forehead was an odd shade of reddish-orange from the base of the bill to the peak of the crown and down to the loral region and upper edge of the eyes. Contrasting with the orange of the forehead were lores that appeared to be dusky gray below a line that extended from the nares back to the upper edge of the eye, and above a line that extended back from the gape along the lower edge of the moustachial and auricular regions. The darker coloration of the face therefore extended below the eye but not above it, and my impression was that the auriculars were olive and thus a slightly different color than the more grayish lores. Contrasting even more sharply with the dark lores and auriculars than the forehead, the chin and throat were a bright orange in color, with this same color extending as a wedge down onto the center of the breast before tapering to a narrow line as it continued down the center of the belly. Demarcating conspicuously (but not all that sharply) the orange on the breast and belly was the yellowish-olive color that extended broadly along the sides, flanks, and lower belly. When seen from below, the lowermost part of the belly anterior to the vent was yellowish, but the undertail coverts just beyond the vent were a pinkish-orange color that was a little different from the deep orange that characterized the throat and center of the breast. The underside of the tail was a dark olive color with a suffusion of orange throughout. Returning to the upperparts, I thought the nape, back, and scapulars were a yellowish-olive in color and seemingly unmarked, but the uppertail coverts and maybe also the rump in part were more yellowish and maybe even with a suffusion of orange. The upperside of the tail was dark brown, but with most of the feathers also having narrow edges of orange that extended from the base to nearly the tip of each feather. The wings were subtly darker and more purely brown than the upperparts, but they were also conspicuously fringed paler. On the visible median coverts, I noted a somewhat diffuse fringe of golden-olive, possibly with a faint orange cast, that was broadest at a tip, but which also extended up along the edges to create a scaly, upper wingbar. The more elongate greater coverts each had dark brown center that contrasted with a narrow but well-defined fringe that extended the length of the outer edge and across the tip of each feather to create a pattern of fine striping, if not a row of subtle, comma-shaped stripes. The primary coverts were a little darker brown than the secondary coverts and at least most of these feathers had a narrow but well-defined fringe of orange that extended along the outer edge but seemingly not across the tip. The remiges were had narrow, but generally well-defined, edges to the outer webs that created a finely striped pattern to the rear part of the wing on which most of the feathers were edged with orange, but the inner primaries appeared to have the edges more yellowish than those on both the outer secondaries and primaries. I also thought the innermost two or three secondaries had a broader and more diffuse suffusion of yellowish-olive extending across the outer web of each feather to create a pattern that was weaker than that on the other feathers. I did not think the exposed primary tips were conspicuously edged paler, but it was difficult for me to be sure. As far as I could determine, the upper mandible was entirely black, but the lower was a medium-gray to bluish-gray with what appeared to be a narrowly blackish tip. The eyes were dark brown, the legs and feet were slate-gray, and the claws appeared to be black.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

800

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

4290 pixels x 2782 pixels

Original file size

8.9 MB