Palm Tanager

Fascinating facts about the Palm Tanager

• Since 1962, palm tanagers have added Tobago to their breeding map, joining their long-standing presence on Trinidad, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Paraguay and southern Brazil. The island colonies nest in the same way as on the mainland, building bulky cup nests in palms or under house eaves, showing the species' flexibility in using both natural and human-made structures. Reinforcing their status as a resilient, adaptable resident rather than a seasonal migrant.
• A female palm tanager spends 14 days incubating three, sometimes two, brown-blotched cream eggs before the chicks break out of the shell. After hatching, the youngsters remain in the nest for another 17 days before they fledge, a total of 31 days from laying to flight.
• A palm tanager can fit on a ruler, its body measures just 19 cm from beak to tail, and it tips the scales at only 36 g.
• Palm tanagers are social, restless birds that feast on a buffet of small fruit, nectar, flower petals and insects, including caterpillars.
• When a palm tanager takes flight, a bright yellow wingbar flashes against its grey-to-olive back. The wingbar, combined with blackish flight feathers edged in green, creates a striking contrast.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Palm Tanager

In the sun-dappled clearings of the tropical forest, the Palm Tanager dances through the air with effortless elegance, its iridescent feathers glimmering like polished jewels as it flits between the slender trunks of the palm trees. With a flick of its tail and a flash of its wings, this tiny king of the canopy navigates the intricate network of branches with precision and grace, its bright, inquisitive eyes scanning the surroundings for the ripest fruits and sweetest nectar. As it moves, the Palm Tanager leaves a trail of melodic song in its wake, a lilting serenade that fills the forest with joy and vitality.

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