English          -          Gilt-edged Tanager 

Portuguese  -           Saíra-douradinha

Latin             -           Tangara cyanoventris

This eye-catching tanager is found only in Brazil and is part of the genus Tangara, which includes some of the most spectacularly colored birds in South America. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

Gilt-edged Tanagers are brilliantly colored with orange-yellow upperparts with black streaking on the nape and back, black throat patch, turquoise breast and a green belly and undertail coverts.

The Gilt-edged Tanager mainly feed on fruit, berries etc but will pick insects from leaves, or sometimes in flight, 

The female usually builds a  well concealed cup nest and lays two brown or lilac-speckled white eggs. These hatch in 13–14 days and the chicks fledge in a further 15–16 days. The male and female feed the nestlings on insects and fruit. During the breeding season, young birds from previous broods have been observed helping the mated pair at their nest.

Although it exists in one of the most threatened biomes on earth, the Atlantic Forest, the Gilt-edged Tanager is locally common. and is classified as Least Concern. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. The reason for this categorization is because they have a large range and less than 30% population decline over ten years (BirdLife International 2014). Their exact population size is unknown, but it is believed to be greater than 10,000 mature individuals.

Both photos of the Gilt-edged Tanager were taken at Alfredo Chaves - Espirito Santo.