Silver-throated Tanager

How to find it

In Monteverde, guides suggest starting in the early morning, when tanagers are waking and active, and they list this species among the top tanagers to look for there. It stays in foliage and moves quickly, so it can be hard to spot. The silvery throat patch is a reliable mark once you glimpse it. Fruit feeders and fruiting trees are good places to wait, since it often visits them. It is common in middle-elevation forest, but one Costa Rica birding blog says it is best enjoyed up close at feeding tables.

How to recognise it

Male:

- mostly bright yellow

- silvery-white throat

- black stripe on the cheek

- black streaks on the back

- wings and tail edged in green

- about 13 cm long

One lodge guide notes it can look a bit like a dirty lemon-yellow rather than super bright, so lean on the silvery throat, the green wing edges and the black back streaks.

Females look like males but are duller and greener. Young birds are duller and greener still, with a grey throat.

The Costa Rican form, frantzii, has a bright yellow crown and nape with a faint pale blue-green band across the nape. Its throat and foreneck are paler than in the other two subspecies.

What it sounds like

Recording: Niels Krabbe, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 5 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It travels in pairs or small groups, often with other tanagers, honeycreepers, warblers and other small birds. It makes altitudinal movements.

It eats small fruit, usually swallowed whole, and also insects and spiders. In Costa Rica it feeds closer to the ground than it does in Colombia.

Breeding in Costa Rica runs from April to September, with two broods. The female builds the nest alone.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in the lower and middle levels of wet mountain forest, common to abundant between 600 and 1,700 m. It also uses edges and semi-open areas with shade trees or second growth.

It has been seen in clearings with fruit trees beside forest, and it can use disturbed areas if some trees remain.

It is most numerous on the Caribbean side. On the Pacific side it reaches the northern ranges, the Talamanca range, the Dota region, the General-Coto Brus valleys and the Osa Peninsula hills.

When to see it

It is a resident, so it is present all year. In the late wet season, when rains are heaviest, birds move down to sea level on both slopes.

Similar birds

It differs from the Emerald Tanager (Tangara florida) by its dark cheek stripe. It also lacks that bird's dark ear patch.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Tangara Dorada, and the Spanish list adds the nicknames Rayo de Sol, Chia and Juanita. A Costa Rican bird site gives Juanita as the common name. Other countries use different names: tangara goliplata in Panama, Ecuador and Colombia, and tangara de garganta plateada in Peru. Only Costa Rica uses tangara dorada. The genus name Tangara comes from a Tupi word meaning dancer, first used for brightly coloured birds.

Status and conservation

It is a resident on the AOCR list (R) and is not globally threatened, with the IUCN rating it Least Concern.

Photography tips

One Costa Rica writer says it is stunning in good light, yet so common in places that people may dismiss it as just another bird. A birding blog says it is best enjoyed up close at feeding tables, where it is easiest to watch.