Opal-rumped tanager
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
The opal-rumped tanager (Tangara velia) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest of South America. The population of the Atlantic Forest has a far paler chest than the other populations, and has often been considered a separate species as the silvery-breasted tanager (Tangara cyanomelas). Today most authorities treat it as a subspecies of the opal-rumped tanager.
Taxonomy
In 1743 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the opal-rumped tanager in his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "Red-belly'd Blue-bird" ". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen owned by the Duke of Richmond that had been collected in Suriname.[1] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the opal-rumped tanager with the wagtails in the genus Motacilla. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Motacilla velia and cited Edwards' work.[2] Linnaeus provided no explanation for the specific epithet; it is perhaps a misprint for the Ancient Greek elea, a small bird mentioned by Aristotle.[3] The bay-headed tanager is now placed in the genus Tangara that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.[4][5] The type locality is Suriname.[6]
Four subspecies are recognised:[5]
- Tangara velia velia (Linnaeus, 1758) – the Guianas and north Brazil
- Tangara velia iridina (Hartlaub, 1841) – west Amazonia
- Tangara velia signata (Hellmayr, 1905) – northeast Brazil
- Tangara velia cyanomelas (Wied-Neuwied, 1830) – east Brazil
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Assis, Seixas, Raposo, & Kirwan (2008). Taxonomic status of Tangara cyanomelaena (Wied, 1830), an east Brazilian atlantic forest endemic. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 16(3): 232–239.