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.

English - Orange-breasted Falcon 

 Portuguese - Falcão-de-peito-laranja 

 Latin - Falco deiroleucus  

The Orange-breasted Falcon is a smallish raptor  whose range historically stretched from southern Mexico through to northern Argentina. 

The Orange-breasted Falcon female is nearly twice the size of her mate – a greater size difference than that of all other 39 falcon species. The face, sides of head and upper parts in the adult are black; the feathers margined with slate-colour; and the tail with four narrow, white bars. The throat is white, the breast, lower abdomen and thighs orange brown. Across the mid-ventral region there is a broad band of black; its feathers barred or tipped with buff to white. The eyes are dark brown; the cere yellowish green; the bill slate black, becoming greenish leaden towards the base on the lower mandible. The feet are bright yellow.
Immatures are similar, but the chest is paler, the lower abdomen and thighs are black barred like the mid-section with buff or white.

Orange-breasted Falcons have probably always been rare because of their specialized habitat. They nest on large cliffs near large areas of unbroken tropical forest. Little is known about the species’ density in South America other that it is rare but widely dispersed geographically. Some biologists estimate that their total population may have never been more than a few thousand individuals – and there are even fewer today.  

Like most other falcons, Orange-breasted Falcons do not build their own nests. Instead, they often make small depressions in the substrate of ledges or in crevices of cliffs or sink holes.  When the female is ready, she typically lays three relatively large reddish-brown eggs over a six-day period. More than most other birds of prey, the female does most of the incubation for about 30 days and brooding of the chicks for about two weeks. While she is busy keeping the eggs and young at just the right temperature, the male works hard to provide all of her and the nestlings’ food. Should he perish, the chicks are not likely to survive, as the female seldom leaves the nest unprotected. This is hard work for the male and after the chicks hatch, he must be diligent in finding enough for his family to eat. Several times a day, he returns to the nest site with prey – often a bird that he has prepared by removing all the feathers, wings and legs. He and the female will often exchange food in mid-air and the female will carry it back to the nest where she will delicately feed tidbits to her young. At around 40 days after hatching, the young fly for the first time. However, they stay in their parents’ territory for many months while they learn to hunt and live independently.  Orange-breasted Falcons usually reach breeding age at around 2-3 years old.

Orange-breasted Falcons are primarily bird hunters. They prey on small- to medium-sized birds, particularly doves, parakeets, and swifts. However, they also take large insects and, during dusk and pre-dawn hours, bats. They are aerial hunters, so they take all of their prey while in flight. These falcons are extremely fast flyers and though no study has been done to measure their speed, biologists who have observed these birds in fast pursuit believe they could even be faster than the Peregrine Falcon, one of the fastest animals on Earth! 

It is suspected that the total population of the Orange-breasted Falcon is undergoing ongoing declines at the rate of 25-30% over three generations, and it has therefore been uplisted to a Near Threatened species.

Photos of the Orange-breasted Falcon were taken in a location north of Vitoria ES

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English          -          Bananaquit

Portuguese   -          Cambacica

Latin              -           Coereba flaveola

The bananaquit is a small and distinctive bird with black to greyish upperparts, bright yellow underparts, a conspicuous, long white eyestripe, and a slender, pointed, down-curved beak. The beak is black with a reddish spot at the base, while the throat may be black, white or grey,  there is sometimes a white spot on the wing. The tail is short and dark in colour, with dark legs. The bananaquit is highly variable in appearance across its range, and an impressive 41 subspecies are currently recognised. The female bananaquit is paler in colour than the male, while juveniles are paler and duller, and have a more yellowish eyestripe.

Although in the past the bananaquit has been varyingly classified along with honeycreepers, tanagers and warblers, it is now considered to be the sole member of its own family, the “Coerebidae”. Their song is described as a high-pitched series of thin, rapid, unmusical notes, while the call is a short, high-pitched tsip or seet.

The bananaquit may breed year-round in some areas, with two or three broods each year, or breeding may coincide with the wet season. Two to four eggs are laid and are incubated solely by the female. The eggs hatch after 12 to 13 days. The young leave the nest at two to three weeks of age and individuals have been recorded living up to seven years in the wild.

The Bananaquit is found in a range of habitats, including scrub, lowland tropical forest, woodland, plantations and even in areas of secondary growth. It uses all levels of the forest, and is also common in parks, gardens, hedges and suburban areas.

This species has a wide range throughout the West Indies, the Caribbean, from Southern Mexico south to southern Brazil and northeast Argentina.This species is not known to face any major threats at present and is currently considered “of least concerned”.

Photos of the Bananaquit were taken at Museu mello leitao, Santa Teresa - Espirito Santo.