Hepatic Tanager

Hepatic Tanager

Hepatic Tanager: Large tanager, dark to orange-red overall, gray wash on back and flanks. Gray-red cheek patch. Heavy, dark bill is slightly hooked. Legs and feet are gray. Forages in upper foliage of trees, sometimes catches insects in midair. Swift direct flight on rapid wing beats.

● Song: "chup"

● Foraging & Feeding: Hepatic Tanager: Feeds mostly on insects in upper foliage of tall trees, where it gleans prey from branches, stems, and leaves. Sometimes catches insects in flight. Also eats fruits.

● Breeding & nesting: Hepatic Tanager: Three to five blue green eggs with brown markings are laid in a shallow cup nest made of forbs, grass, stems, and flower petals, lined with fine grass, and built on a low horizontal branch, 15 to 50 feet above the ground. Eggs are incubated by the female for about 13 to 14 days.

● Similar species: Hepatic Tanager: Scarlet Tanager has distinctly black wings and tail; female Scarlet Tanager has black wings and tail and lacks orange wash on underparts. Summer Tanager has gray bill and lacks gray cheek patch; female Summer Tanager has gray bill and lacks gray wash on flanks. Other juvenile tanagers lack black bills and streaked breasts.

Flight Pattern