White-bellied Tanager Tangara brasiliensis Scientific name definitions

With its metallic turquoise-blue face and breast, this species is easily identified within its range, but Tangara brasiliensis takes its English name from the white belly, which is the principal and most obvious difference from the formerly conspecific Turquoise Tanager (Tangara mexicana) of Amazonia. Like the latter, it occurs in humid lowland forest, forest edges, restinga (coastal woodland on white sand), and taller second growth, mainly at elevations below 500 m, but its distribution is entirely allopatric, being endemic to the Atlantic Forest region of coastal southeast Brazil, from eastern Bahia south to northern Rio de Janeiro. Like most tanagers, this species principally feeds on fruit, but will also glean for insects on small, thin twigs, and usually moves in small flocks. However, despite being fairly common across its range, virtually all aspects of the species’ natural history are very poorly known, with no information on such topics as age at first breeding, life span and survivorship, dispersal, population regulation, molts, territoriality, sexual behavior, or almost any aspect of its breeding biology.