Hepatic Tanager

How to find it

Scan the canopy and forest edges in mountain country, and check mixed flocks of tanagers, honeycreepers and warblers. Look at the bill first, since a dark, stout bill is the quickest clue. Tausito, between Pejibaye and Tapantí in the Turrialba area, is a place where it is regularly seen. Because many birds move downhill outside the breeding season, higher sites are the better bet when they are breeding. Do not expect it everywhere at lower elevations: one blogger who lives in the Turrialba area says he had never seen it in his own local area.

How to recognise it

The adult male is entirely dusky red to dark brick red, with a paler, brighter throat and lower belly. The bill is blackish and stout, with a prominent tooth on its cutting edge. Dusky patches show between bill and eye, and often on the cheeks.

The female is olive green above and yellowish olive below, with brighter yellow on the belly and under the tail. Young birds look like females, with patches of brick red on the head and throat.

The bird is about 18 cm long and weighs about 40 g. It lacks the white wing bars of the White-winged Tanager and the Flame-colored Tanager, which also live at middle or higher elevations.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

The Hepatic Tanager hops slowly through foliage, searching up and down for insects and spiders. It sometimes flies out after insects, chews flowers, and eats many berries and seeds with fleshy coverings.

You may find it alone, in pairs, or with mixed flocks of other tanagers, honeycreepers and warblers. It is mostly a treetop bird, though a pair near Turrialba was seen feeding fairly low down.

Where it lives

It uses the canopy and forest edges in hilly or mountain country, mostly in treetops. It sometimes comes down into nearby secondary growth and clearings with scattered tall trees.

On the Caribbean side it lives at 600 to 1500 m in the central and northern mountains, and at 900 to 1700 m in the southeast. On the Pacific side of the northern ranges it is fairly common above 1100 m. On the slopes of the Dota region in the Talamanca range it is mostly at 1000 to 1850 m, and it also breeds in the higher hills of the Osa Peninsula.

When to see it

Many birds move to lower elevations outside the breeding season, so they may be easier to find at higher sites when breeding. A local source says that from May to early September the all-red male is unlikely to be mistaken for another species, since Summer Tanagers are absent then.

Similar birds

The male can be confused with the much more common Summer Tanager. The Hepatic's bill is grey and duskier with a prominent tooth, while the Summer's is flesh or horn coloured, and the Hepatic also has darker lores. A female Hepatic has much brighter underparts than the more ochre female Summer Tanager. Carmiol's Tanager has duller underparts in both sexes. In Costa Rica the Summer Tanager is the red bird seen almost everywhere from mid-September to late April.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name on the Costa Rican list is Tangara Bermeja, with Cardenal as a local second name. Other Spanish names used elsewhere include Fueguero and Piranga Bermeja.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rica bird list marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

Check forest edges and mixed flocks, where the bird may sit in the open. On a Tausito outing near Turrialba, a pair was feeding fairly low down, within easy reach of a camera.