Speckled Tanager

How to find it

Look in the canopy and along the edges of foothill forest, and check mixed fruit-eating flocks. Groups of 3 to 6 are typical, so when you find one bird, scan the neighbouring branches for its companions. Fruiting trees in the foothills draw it in with other tanagers. Feeders can bring it close too, and balcony birding at forest-edge stations gives good views of mixed tanager flocks.

How to recognise it

Look for these marks:

Green upperparts with black spots.

A yellow face with a black line running from the eye to the gape.

Black wings and tail edged with green.

White underparts spotted with black.

It is a small tanager, about 13 cm long and about 18 g in weight. Males and females look alike, so there are not two plumages to sort out. In Costa Rica the double spotting, on the back and on the belly, separates it from other green tanagers.

Behaviour and diet

This is a social bird. In Costa Rica it goes in pairs or small groups of 3 to 6 birds and is often seen in mixed flocks of fruit-eating birds. Across its range it is often seen with Bay-headed Tanagers and honeycreepers, and it is rarely found alone.

It forages busily in the high canopy, flitting among the trees. The nest in Costa Rica is a tidy cup placed in foliage 3 to 8 m up, holding 2 white eggs with heavy brown spotting.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in the upper levels of humid forest, and it also uses nearby secondary growth and clearings with scattered trees and shrubs. It is often seen in the middle levels or canopy, and in vegetation next to human settlements.

It is found mainly at 400 to 1000 m on the Caribbean slope and 300 to 1400 m on the Pacific slope, somewhat higher near the Panama border. The Costa Rican subspecies lives on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and western Panama.

When to see it

Breeding in Costa Rica runs from April to June.

Similar birds

The similar Spotted Tanager has a green head, while the Speckled Tanager has a yellow head. The Spotted Tanager lives in South America and does not overlap with it in Costa Rica. Among Costa Rican green tanagers, black spotting on both back and belly is the clearest mark.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources list the names Cebra, Zebra and Tangara Moteada. Cebra means zebra, which fits its striped and spotted pattern. Tangara Moteada is also the name used in Panama, while Colombia uses Tangará Pecosa and Tángara Goteada, and Venezuela uses Tángara Pintada.

Status and conservation

It is a resident on the AOCR list (R), rated Least Concern by the IUCN and described as locally common in montane cloud forest in Costa Rica and Panama.

Photography tips

It is common at foothill sites on the Caribbean side and in parts of the southern Pacific zone, but it can forage high in trees and live in dense forest, so photos can take effort. Balcony birding at forest-edge stations gives good views of tanager mixed flocks, and the balcony at Pocosol Station works well for tanagers.