Common bush tanager

Appearance

The adult is 13.5 cm long and weighs 20 g on average. They have a brown head with a thin supercilium and a white spot behind the eye and a light throat. The upperparts are olive and the underparts yellow, becoming white on the belly.

Coloration, especially of the cheeks, throat and eye region, is very variable across the wide range, giving weight to the theory that this these birds form a superspecies. Immatures are browner above, darker below, and have a duller olive eye spot. Hatchlings are covered in dark gray down feathers and have bright yellow bills.

Naming

The related sooty-capped bush tanager has a blacker head with a bold white supercilium rather than an eye spot.

Distribution

This bird is typically found from 400 to 2,300 m ASL in Middle America; near the Equator they are common found at altitudes of 2,000–3,500 m ASL. Its habitat – cloud forests with ample undergrowth and adjacent bushy clearings – is dominated by trees and shrubs from such families as Asteraceae, Clusiaceae, Cyatheaceae, Melastomataceae, Rubiaceae and Winteraceae, and epiphytes of the Araceae and Orchidaceae.

Behavior

The common bush tanager is usually encountered in small groups or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock, and is rather sedentary.

The call is a squeaky ''tseeet'' or ''chit''. Songs vary widely between the populations.

Reproduction

There is apparently no dedicated nesting season at least in the hottest parts of its range, but in general it seems that the common bush tanager prefers to breed mainly between October and May. These birds hide their nest below vegetation on a bank or slope, in a hollow or tree trunk, amongst epiphytes, or up in a tree.

The bulky cup nest, made from thin twigs and roots, coarse leaves and mosses, is some 10–15 cm high and nearly 10 cm wide. The nest cup, lined with fine leaves and fibers, is almost 5 cm wide and deep. The nest may be placed over 20 m up in a tree, but usually is located 15 m high or less; in most populations nests are occasionally built less than 1 m above and sometimes even right on the ground.

Food

This passerine feeds on insects, spiders small fruits and nectar.