Ruby crowned tanager perched, Atlantic Rainforest, Brazil

The Ruby-crowned Tanager is an inhabitant of open woodland and forest edge from the Atlantic Coast of Brazil west to Paraguay and south to Argentina. The male Ruby-crowned Tanager is a handsome all black bird with a white interscapular patch. While displaying males raise their hidden ruby red crest. Females are reddish brown above with a gray head, white throat and cinnamon underparts. Usually seen singly or in small groups, Ruby-crowned Tanagers forage from midheights to the upper canopy, moving restlessly from tree to tree and habitually flicking their wings. The diet of Ruby-crowned Tanagers consists mainly of fruit and insects, and at times these birds can be observed following army ant swarms.

The genus Tachyphonus is derived from the Greek words takhus meaning fast, and phōne meaning sound or voice, thus translating to fast speaking (Jobling 2010). Meanwhile, the specific epithet coronatus is Latin for crowned (Jobling 2010). In Spanish the common name Tangara Coronada (Hilty 2011, de Juana et al. 2012), and in Portuguese the common name is Tiê-Preto (CBRO 2010), also called Gurundi in São Paulo or the Azulão (Sick 1993). Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, and heavily degraded former forest. It is not globally threatened and is concerned least concern by IUCN.