Scarlet-rumped Tanager

• Male and female are so different that it is hard to believe they are the same species: he is black with a scarlet rump, she brown and orange with no trace of red.
• It was split from Cherrie's tanager of the Pacific slope as a species of its own in the 1990s: the two meet in a narrow strip of Costa Rica where they hybridise.
• It is one of the commonest birds at the fruit feeders of Costa Rican reserves, and its confiding nature has made it one of the species visitors photograph most.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Rainforest edges, secondary forest, plantations and gardens of the Central American Caribbean

Birth weight

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Size at birth

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Sexual maturity

12 months

Gestation / incubation

12 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

2 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Ramphocelus passerinii

Best time: All year round on the Caribbean slope of Central America, by day; it is abundant along forest edges and in plantations and gardens with fruit trees.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.