Pair of olive green tanager, Atlantic Rainforest, Brazil

The olive-green tanager (Orthogonys chloricterus) is a species of bird of the family Mitrospingidae, in the monotypic genus Orthogonys. It is endemic to Brazil, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest. The sole member of one of several Thraupidae genera that is endemic to Brazil, the Olive-green Tanager inhabits coastal montane forest, principally above 900 m, in the southeast of the country between Espírito Santo and Santa Catarina. This comparatively large-bodied tanager is very distinctively but rather uniformly plumaged, being dull olive-green above, and rather yellower below. It seems to be largely or exclusively a group-living species, often being observed in bands of up to circa ten individuals, which forage for insects and fruits, even visiting bird tables in some places, and at least occasionally serving as a nucleus for mixed-species foraging flocks. To date, very little has been published concerning the Olive-green Tanager’s breeding behavior.

The olive green tanager feeds on Insects; some fruit, including Cecropia catkins. It usually Occurs in flocks of about eight individuals, occasionally up to 20, most often in mixed hunting parties. It is not globally threatened and is concerned least concern by IUCN and is locally common to uncommon.