Swallow Tanager

The Swallow Tanager is an unusual member of the tanager family, distinctive enough to be placed in its own genus, Tersina. The male is a striking, brilliant turquoise-blue overall, with a black face, throat, and upper breast, black flight feathers, and clean white patches on the flanks and belly. The female and immature birds are entirely different, being bright grass-green above with a paler, sometimes yellowish-white, belly.

Both sexes share a distinctive body shape: a short, broad, slightly flattened bill and relatively long, pointed wings that give it an unusually streamlined, swallow-like profile compared to other tanagers, which is reflected in its common name.

This shape reflects its habit of catching insects in flight, a behavior less common among tanagers, most of which glean food from foliage rather than hawking insects aerially like a flycatcher or swallow.

Key field marks

• Male: brilliant turquoise-blue body, black face/throat/breast, white flank patches
• Female/immature: grass-green above, pale below
• Short, broad bill and relatively long, pointed wings
• Often seen perched on high bare branches or wires, or hawking insects in flight

Similar species

No other tanager shares the male's turquoise-and-black pattern combined with a swallow-like body shape. Female Swallow Tanagers can be confused with various green female tanagers or honeycreepers, but the short broad bill and streamlined wing shape help distinguish it.

Habitat

Swallow Tanagers favor forest edge, riverine woodland, gallery forest, savanna woodland, and clearings with scattered tall trees, rather than dense forest interior.

Range

The species is broadly distributed across tropical South America, from Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas south through the Amazon basin to Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, with some populations undertaking seasonal movements.

Migration

Some southern and Amazonian populations are migratory or make substantial seasonal movements tied to breeding and food availability, unlike most tanagers which are largely sedentary.

Behavior

Swallow Tanagers often perch conspicuously on high exposed branches, dead snags, or wires, from which they sally out to catch flying insects, a foraging style unusual for a tanager and reminiscent of flycatchers or swallows.

Voice

The voice includes thin, buzzy, high-pitched notes and chattering calls, generally unremarkable and given in flight or from perches.

Feeding

It feeds on a combination of fruit, taken from trees and shrubs, and flying insects caught in aerial sallies, giving it a broader foraging repertoire than most tanagers.

Nesting and breeding

Unusually for a tanager, the Swallow Tanager nests in burrows or cavities, often digging its own tunnel into an earthen bank, streamside cutbank, or using natural cavities and crevices, where the female lays and incubates the eggs.