A tiny bird that is truly a rainbow of colors, covered in brilliant shades of copper, blue, green, white, yellow and red!
Meet the Chestnut-backed Tanager
The brown-backed tanager (Stilpnia precious) is a species of bird in the thraupιdae family. The male of this species has a bright reddish crown that fades to a more coppery tone along its back. Its rump is yellowish, its tail, wings and back are black with blue trim. The greater part of its chest and belly are greenish blue with yellow in the center of the belly and the lower part of the tail covers a dark beige color.
Its wing covers are white, with black stripes on its head that continue around its eyes.
The female is more or less a duller version of the male with a greenish upperpart and underparts with washed tan undertail coverts.
photo courtesy of Joaö Quental / CC BY 2.0
These are endemic and are found in southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, eastern Paraguay and Uruguay.
Chestnut-skinned tanagers prefer to live in and around forests and on their edges up to about 1,000 m altitude.
Chestnut-backed tanagers eat a wide variety of fruits, including domesticated varieties, while taking the time to hunt for insects in the canopy. They also readily join mixed-species flocks while searching for food.
Little is known about the reasons for the reproduction of this species, apart from a nesting site in Rio Grande do Sul, about 10 m high, among the thick leaves of an araucaria tree. There was no other information.
The chestnut-backed tanager is not in any current danger and thrives in the areas where it resides. Additional studies show that this animal is not invasive, which simply means that it will not invade areas other than its own region.
