Blue-backed Tanager Cyanicterus cyanicterus Scientific name definitions

Although long considered to be a Guiana Shield endemic, the generally rare and locally distributed Blue-backed Tanager is also known from a single locality south of the Amazon and west of the Rio Madeira in Brazil, which discovery was made only recently. The species favors the canopy of lowland forests, where it frequently consorts with large mixed-species flocks, and it is undoubtedly easily overlooked, especially given potentially widespread confusion between the voice of this species and that of the Fulvous Shrike-Tanager (Lanio fulvus). The Blue-backed Tanager is a comparatively large-bodied and heavy-billed tanager, and is the sole representative of the genus Cyanicterus. It is primarily clad in blue and yellow, with females being most readily distinguished from males by their yellow, rather than brilliant blue, lores, throat and upper breast.

E Venezuela (R Yuruán; sight records also at San Isidro and foothills of Sierra de Lema) E across C Guyana and Suriname to French Guiana; also several tiny and presumably isolated populations in C & E Amazonian Brazil (E Amazonas, Pará).