White-shouldered Tanager Loriotus luctuosus Scientific name definitions

White-shouldered Tanager is fairly common throughout most of its large range. They occur in humid forest of the lowlands and foothills, where they can be found in borders, open woodland, and interior forest. Pairs or family groups frequently join mixed foraging flocks. Most commonly, they are found foraging at the midlevels, but they also frequent the subcanopy and lower growth. They glean and flutter for insects and small fruit. Males are jet black with obvious white shoulders, whereas females have an olive-green back, yellow belly, gray head, and whitish throat. Their calls are a constant though easily overlooked series of short, high, rising notes.

The former scientific name Tachyphonus luctuosus comes from the Greek takhus which means fast and phonos which mean speaking, and luctuosus which means mournful, from lugere to mourn (Jobling 2010). The common name in Spanish is Tangara Luctuosa (Hilty 2011, de Juana et al 2012)

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

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.