Bird
Bird
Swallow Tanager
Tersina viridis
The Swallow Tanager is an unusually shaped tanager with a broad, flattened bill and a habit of catching insects on the wing like a swallow, its brilliant turquoise male plumage a striking sight around Trinidad's forest edge and clearings.
The Swallow Tanager is an unusually shaped tanager with a broad, flattened bill and a habit of catching insects on the wing like a swallow, its brilliant turquoise male plumage a striking sight around Trinidad's forest edge and clearings.
Identification
A small, distinctively shaped tanager around 13 to 14 cm long, with an unusually broad, flat bill for a tanager. Males are brilliant turquoise-blue with a black throat, face mask, and flight feathers, and white flank patches; females and immatures are green above with a yellowish throat and white belly, entirely different in appearance from the male.
Behaviour
Forages both by gleaning fruit and insects from foliage and by making swallow-like aerial sallies to catch flying insects, an unusual combination among tanagers reflected in its broad, flattened bill. It is often seen in small groups at forest edge and clearings, and nests in a burrow excavated into an earthen bank, unusual nesting behaviour for a tanager.
Status in T&T
Present in forest edge, clearings, and semi-open woodland across Trinidad, generally uncommon and somewhat local. Not considered threatened. It is protected as native wildlife under the Conservation of Wildlife Act.
