Crimson-backed Tanager

How to find it

Treat the Crimson-backed Tanager as a bonus to watch for, never a target. The one record came from a flock of Scarlet-rumped Tanagers in the south, so check every flock of Pacific-slope Scarlet-rumped Tanagers carefully. Look for a tanager with a red head and chest rather than an all-black front. Notice any bird whose red looks much more vivid than its neighbours. Scrub, forest edges and second growth are where the species lives elsewhere in its range.

How to recognise it

The adult male has a maroon-red head and chest.

The lower back and belly are brighter red.

The wings and tail are black.

The lower bill looks silvery, and a birder who saw one in Panama described it as bright blue-white.

The bird is about 18 cm long.

The female is duller than the male, with blackish underparts.

The Ojochal bird stood out because its red was much more vivid than that of the Scarlet-rumped Tanagers it was with. A red-headed tanager in a flock of mostly black birds with red rumps is the one to look at closely.

What it sounds like

Recording: tomaugust, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Across its normal range these tanagers travel in noisy flocks over scrub, forest edges and second growth. They are especially common where people are active.

That flocking habit fits the Costa Rican record, because the one known bird was moving with a flock of Scarlet-rumped Tanagers. Those are the birds to scan in the south.

Where it lives

Its natural habitats are moist tropical and subtropical lowland forest and heavily degraded former forest. Across its range it is limited to lowlands and valleys of northern Colombia, northwestern Venezuela and Panama.

In Panama it occurs across most of the country, reaching Chiriquí and Veraguas in the west, and it is also on Coiba Island and the Pearl Islands. Chiriquí is the part of its range nearest Costa Rica. Costa Rica is not part of its normal range, and the only record here is from the southern Pacific coast.

Similar birds

The likely confusion species in Costa Rica is the Cherrie's form of the Scarlet-rumped Tanager, which lives on the Pacific slope from central Puntarenas and western San José south into western Panama. The male Scarlet-rumped is mostly black with a red rump and a silvery bill. The Crimson-backed male has a maroon-red head and chest instead, so compare any red-backed Ramphocelus tanager there against it.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks the Crimson-backed Tanager A, accidental, so it is neither a resident nor a regular visitor in Costa Rica.

Photography tips

Photograph the whole flock rather than one bird. A frame showing the maroon-red head and chest beside nearby Scarlet-rumped Tanagers makes the identification much easier to check afterward.