by Ixothraupis guttata, a medium-sized passerine bird, is the speckled tanager. It breeds permanently in Brazil’s far north as well as Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana, and Suriname. French Guiana has also reported seeing the animal.
The spotted tanager (I. punctata), which takes its place to the south, is most likely a close relative of this bird. Although it is commonly assumed that these two species are totally allopatric, a speckled tanager was discovered in 1998 in Colombia’s Serrana de los Churumbelos, just around 160 km (99 mi) north of where spotted tanagers are known to exist.
Weighting 18 g (0.63 oz), adult speckled tanagers measure 13.2 cm (5.2 in) in length. The face is yellow with a black line running from the eye to the gape, while the upperparts are green with black spots. The underparts are white with black spots, and the wings and tail are black with green edges. The genders are comparable. The flying cry of the speckled tanager is a tinny metallic chirping tsip.
The black spotting is more obvious on the head of the Trinidadian subspecies I. g. trinitatis, which also has a brighter and more widespread yellow pattern. Ixothraupis guttata, a species that is more closely related to the subtropics than its relative, can be found in humid montane and secondary forests with dense undergrowth and typically not very tall trees.
The sociable spotted tanager consumes mostly fruit and occasional insects. They frequently coexist with honeycreepers and bay-headed tanagers.The little cup nest is constructed in a tree, and the typical clutch consists of two white eggs with brown blotches. The female must wait a further 15 days for the offspring to hatch after 13 days of egg incubation.
Source cridit to: Wikipedia
