Silver-beaked Tanager Ramphocelus carbo Scientific name definitions

The Silver-beaked Tanager is a common resident of bushy forest margins and secondary forest across the Amazon basin from Venezuela south to Northern Paraguay.  Male Silver-beaked Tanagers are stunningly colored birds with velvety blackish-crimson heads and underparts, darker blackish-crimson upperparts and a bill that is black above and shining silvery white below.  Females are a dull dark reddish brown with a brighter red rump.  In poor light, these tanagers appear all dark with a white bill. Silver-beaked Tanagers travel in noisy bands of 4 to 10 individuals in the undergrowth along forest borders.  As Silver-beaked Tanagers forage for fruit and insects, they hop rapidly and heavily through foliage often nervously flicking their tales and wings.

16–17 cm; 21·5–27 g (atrosericeus), 23·5–37·5 g (other races). Dark tanager with heavy bill, lower mandible greatly expanded basally. Male nominate race has head, neck and throat deep carmine (feathers short, dense and plush-like); upperparts, including upper­tail-coverts and upperwing-coverts, carmine-black, contrasting somewhat (in good light) with redder head and neck; flight-feathers and tail dusky black; dark red of throat deepens to rich deep crimson on chest, and to deep black (but with dark crimson tinge) on lower underparts and undertail-coverts; iris reddish-brown; upper mandible dark blue-grey, lower mandible gleaming silvery white and usually with small dark tip; legs dark horn-grey. Female is mainly rich dark rusty red above, slightly redder on lower back and rump, wing dusky, upperwing-coverts and tertials edged rufescent brown, tail dusky; rich reddish-brown to warm brown below, greyish tinge on breast; bill entirely brownish-dusky. Immature male is very like female; older immature brighter. Races differ mainly in plumage tone, generally brighter in N and darkest in S: capitalis male has upperparts pure black, only head deep red, chin to breast deep crimson, female has redder rump and uppertail-coverts and more reddish coloration on lower underparts; magnirostris is much like nominate, but with larger, heavier bill, male with white base of lower mandible larger, female more uniformly reddish below; venezuelensis male differs from nominate in having red parts of plumage on average brighter red, upperparts black with tinge of dark red, deep crimson of chin to breast changes to dull charcoal (dull blackish) on lower underparts; unicolor male is very close to nominate, but red foreparts on average slightly brighter and rear parts more uniformly blackish, with back and belly only slightly darker than breast; <em>connectens</em> male is slightly paler above and below than nominate, and with brownish tinge (less red) on back, rump and lower underparts, female paler than nominate female; centralis male is much like previous, but throat slightly darker red; atrosericeus is darkest of all races, male essentially velvety black with dark scarlet hue on head to mid-breast, sharply separated from rest of underparts, female distinctively plain black-brown all over, sometimes with some dull red edges on belly feathers.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Arthropods and fruit ; occasionally eats flowers (possibly for nectar) or drinks nectar. About half of diet is fruit, especially melastome berries; in Trinidad reported as taking 40 species of fruit, 64% of which was of Miconia and Clidemia berries. Of 31 stomachs examined, 14 contained only vegetable matter, seven only animal matter and ten both; contents included Cecropia fruit, seeds, caterpillars, beetles (Coleoptera) including snout beetles (Curculionidae) and leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), spiders (Araneae), orthopterans, ants (Formicidae), and bugs (Hemiptera). Other stomachs contained berries of Solanaceae and Loranthaceae, cactus fruits (Cerus) and winged termites (Isoptera). Of 588 observations in Trinidad, 50% involved foraging for insects, 45% fruit-eating, and 5% at flowers; data similar in Peru. Smaller fruits swallowed whole; larger ones mashed, or pieces pecked from them, and may mash the pulp and discard the tough skin of some fruit species. Travels in groups that are noisy, engaging and omnipresent. Bands of 4–10 individuals, occasionally more, troop noisily about in undergrowth along forest borders or in gardens and clearings; may briefly join mixed-species flocks along borders or briefly associate with other birds in fruiting trees and shrubs. Often acts in quite nervous manner, with much agitated flicking of wings and tail, as it peers in foliage for fruit and insects. Forages from near ground to c. 12 m up, also regularly ascends into canopies 25 m high for fruit, and in general forages higher up when with mixed-species flocks. Hops rapidly and heavily in foliage, and chases disturbed and fleeing insect prey. In Trinidad, 77% of insect-seeking was on foliage, 13% in grass and weeds, 7% in aerial sallies, and remainder on seedheads, twigs and branches. Has been noted at army-ant swarms in Brazil and elsewhere.

Dawn song (occasionally later in day) an energetic and semi-musical but rather repetitive series of phrases without much richness, “tu tu tweep, chip-tup tweep, tu tu tweep, chip, sput, seek...” and so on; some individuals sing leisurely, even simpler, repetitive “spit weet, sput, wheer...” over and over. Day song much like dawn song, but shorter, less sustained, and given infrequently, e.g. “chíck chi-ti-wee” or sometimes just a single note repeated again and again. Call , given almost constantly as groups troop around edges of clearings, a loud, metallic “chank”.