Birds · Passeriformes · Thraupidae

Paradise Tanager

Tangara chilensis

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The paradise tanager — known in Spanish as tangara del paraíso, tángara or tangará siete colores, or simply siete colores — is a passerine bird of the family Thraupidae, belonging to the large genus Tangara. It is native to South America, in the Amazon basin and the Guiana Shield. It is sometimes called the Chilean tanager because of its binomial name, but that name should not be used for the genus Tangara, because Chile is not its habitat and because the name is already used for the other siete colores, which is native to Chile.

Weight

18 g – 24 g

Size

13 cm – 15 cm

Lifespan

10 years

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

In pairs

Usually lives in pairs, sometimes for life.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

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Fun facts

Its combination of fluorescent green, turquoise, black and red places it among the most colourful birds on the planet, and the species changes rump colour by region: red in some populations, orange or yellow in others.
It travels in mixed canopy flocks with dozens of different species: each one works a different substrate and all of them benefit from the collective watch against raptors.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)
Habitat & environment: Canopy of lowland and foothill rainforest of the western Amazon and the Guiana Shield
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: 14 days of incubation
Litter / clutch size: 2 eggs