The Silver-beaked tanager is apparently the most reported bird of Suriname and that to me that is a bit worrisome because I don't see them that often. There are many other birds that I see everyday like the blue-grey tanager and the great kiskadee but not this one. Does that mean that their numbers are decreasing? I don't know, maybe they simply prefer other areas of the country.
The bird in the first picture is a (young?) male. It landed on my fence last Sunday and luckily I was able to take a nice picture. The male is velvety crimson black with a deep crimson throat and breast. The upper part of the bill is black, while the under part is silver. The female is less conspicuously red and has a black bill.
The Silver-beaked Tanager is a a resident breeder in South America. It lives in Venezuela, Colombia, the Guyanas, Peru, Paraguay and Brazil. They breed all year round but mainly during the rainy season from January to August. Their nest has the form of a cup and the female usually lays two or three blue-green eggs with brown spots. It takes 12 days for the young to hatch and another twelve days to fledge.
This tanager lives in small groups in cultivated land and in light woodlands and fields. All day they are searching for fruits and insects in the bushes where they also build their nests. Their call sounds like 'tjeeng' but they can also sing nicely, especially in the morning.
Silver-beaked tanagers are 18 centimetres long and weigh 25 grams.
Thank you for visiting my blog and happy birding.
