Golden-naped tanager

The golden-naped tanager is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in South America from Colombia to Bolivia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest.

Taxonomy

The golden-naped tanager was illustrated by the French naturalists Florent Prévost and Marc Athanase Parfait Oeillet Des Murs in 1842. They coined the binomial name Tanagra ruficervix. The type locality is Bogotá in Colombia. The specific epithet combines the Latin rufus meaning "red" and cervix meaning "nape". A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Tangara was polyphyletic and in the rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, the golden-naped tanager was moved to the resurrected genus Chalcothraupis. The genus had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1851 with the golden-naped tanager as the type species. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek khalkos meaning "bronze" and thraupis, an unidentified small bird.
Six subspecies are recognised:C. r. ruficervix – ColombiaC. r. leucotis – west EcuadorC. r. taylori – southeast Colombia, east Ecuador and north PeruC. r. amabilis – north to central PeruC. r. inca – south PeruC. r. fulvicervix – southeast Peru and west Bolivia

Description

Golden-naped tanagers have plumage similar to those of the metallic-green tanager, the swallow tanager and the blue-and-black tanager as adults of all three species are primarily blue with black facial masking, however, the golden-naped tanager is the only primarily blue tanager with a golden or reddish crown patch or nape. Females have a similar pattern to males, but have duller colors and a narrower nape patch. Juveniles of both sexes have a primarily dull blue-gray coloration with a lighter breast and belly, and lack the distinctive golden nape.