Sunday, May 31, 2009

Green-capped vs. Burnished-buff Tanager

29 of May I returned to the garden where I observed the Green-capped Tanager the previous day. In the early morning I observed one individual. After an hour I had good enough light to take some photos at 800 ASA, and luckily a new bird entered the garden. After taking some photos I started to wonder if this really was a Green-capped Tanager. The crown looked more rufous than usual for this species, and I wondered if this could be a Burnished-buff Tanager. However, it seems to be too high for this species (2100 m). But as my experience with both species is quite limited I hope someone can give me some advice about this bird. It looks like the bird has some greenish in the rufous crown.
Is it a Green-capped or Burnished-buff Tanager.
Some greenish in the rufous crown.
The only picture from behind.
This individual was observed 28 of May at 1800 m.

The waterfal next to the garden were I observed the bird at the three first photos.

As the comment below from Daniel Lane indicates this is Green-capped Tanager.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Tor,

This is Green-capped Tanager. The "green" is actually opalescent, meaning it can change color depending on angle of light. So from some angles, it may appear "rufous". Nothing else about this bird is wrong for Green-capped Tanager.

-Dan Lane

Tor Egil Høgsås said...

Thanks for the comment. I suspected the same as well but needed a confirmation as it was my first enconter with the species. The back also fits well for the Green-capped Tanager, and it has some green shine in the head.