Birdfinding.info ⇒ Readily found at Maricao State Forest, where it is common. Can also be found at middle and upper elevations of El Yunque National Forest and Carite State Forest. Forages actively in the subcanopy and undergrowth in noisy groups that sometimes form the core of mixed-species flocks. Bold and confiding; often approaches observers.
Puerto Rican Tanager
Nesospingus speculiferus
Endemic to Puerto Rico, where it is locally common in wet montane forests of the southwestern Cordillera Central (around Maricao), the Sierra de Luquillo in the northeast, and the Sierra de Cayey in the southeast. Occurs sporadically in other parts of the island, but leaves much apparently suitable habitat unoccupied.
Identification
Best recognized by its striking two-toned head pattern: blackish-brown, helmet-like cap contrasts with gleaming white throat. Bull-headed, with a remarkably heavy bill that is either all-dark or two-toned.
Upperparts are mostly warm brown. Adult’s wing has a small white spot at the base of the primaries.
Underparts are subtly textured: whitish with gray-brown spots or arrowheads on the chest that grade to blurred streaks on the belly.
Puerto Rican Tanager. (Maricao State Forest, Puerto Rico; December 22, 2007.) © Suzanne Labbé
Puerto Rican Tanager. (Maricao State Forest, Puerto Rico; January 30, 2010.) © Steve Metz
Puerto Rican Tanager. (Toro Negro State Forest, Puerto Rico; March 19, 2013.) © Ernesto Burgos
Puerto Rican Tanager. (El Yunque National Forest; April 17, 2014.) © Jay McGowan
Puerto Rican Tanager. (El Yunque National Forest; May 5, 2017.) © David W. Foster
Puerto Rican Tanager. (Maricao State Forest, Puerto Rico; April 8, 2017.) © Kurt Hennige
Puerto Rican Tanager. (Toro Negro State Forest, Puerto Rico; March 19, 2013.) © Ernesto Burgos
Puerto Rican Tanager. (Maricao State Forest, Puerto Rico; January 3, 2015.) © Jim Tietz
Puerto Rican Tanager, showing pale lower mandible. (Maricao State Forest, Puerto Rico; May 27, 2017.) © Chris Sloan
Notes
Monotypic species, genus, and family.
References
eBird. 2018. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed October 7, 2018.)
El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rican Tanager, https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_042914.
Raffaele, H. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Morales, A.L. 2012. Puerto Rican Tanager (Nesospingus speculiferus), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T.S. Schulenberg, ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.purtan1.01.