The Azure-rumped Tanager, Tangara cabanisi, is mostly sky blue, though it has a purplish azure crown. It also appears to be wearing a black mask around its lores. The bill is gray with a dark tip. It is a mottled green just above its half-black, half-blue wings. This bird makes a wi sseeu song and a sii call.

This bird lives in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala in humid broadleaf evergreen forests that grow around 1000-2000 meters. It enjoys the maturing syconia of Ficus (fig) trees and even migrates small distances to get them. It eats them in the canopy. This bird breeds from mid-April to mid-June in Ficus trees. This bird is highly social and can gather in flocks of up to 26 members.

This magnificent bird is endangered because of deforestation to clear the way for coffee plantations. It is estimated that there are 2500-10000 birds left, but that number is thought to be decreasing.

This bird was named after Jean Cabanis.

Resources

• BirdLife International (2006) Species factsheet: Tangara cabanisi. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 27/6/2006
• Howell, Steven N. G. & Webb, Sophie (1995): A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York. ISBN 0-19-854012-4

External links

• BirdLife Species Factsheet.