Black-capped Tanager

Black-capped Tanager

Stilpnia heinei

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Medellín

In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%

156 Verified sightings at Medellín
692 In all 4 parks From 2019 to 2026
March Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Black-capped Tanager

The black-capped tanager (Stilpnia heinei) is one of the many species of Neotropical bird in the family Thraupidae. It lives in the mountains of Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela year-round. This bird can often be found in open landscapes, alone or in pairs, hiding under branches of trees and bushes. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest.

The black-capped tanager was described in 1851, from a type specimen collected in Colombia. It is a member of the genus Stilpnia in the tanager family Thraupidae. In Spanish, it is locally called "Tangara gorrinegra" or "Tangara coroninegra". The black-capped tanager is a songbird (Passeriformes). The tanagers are a very diverse group with over 300 species that account for more than 10% of all birds in the Neotropics. The genus name Stilpnia was proposed in 2016 instead of Tangara for T. heinei in order to match the phylogenetic relationships among tanagers. This was based on DNA analysis done in the tanager family. This bird is most closely related to the straw-backed tanager (Stilpnia argyrofenges) from which it diverged during the late Pleistocene... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song1:25

Colombia · 2017

© Andres Angulo Rubiano · XC549848 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:13

Colombia · 2017

© Andres Angulo · XC437628 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Alarm call0:39

Ecuador · 2008

© Mitch Lysinger · XC261188 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Farallones de Cali National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
~10%
2 Los Nevados National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
~10%
3 Henri Pittier National Park 🇻🇪 Venezuela
<5%
4 Chingaza National Natural Park 🇨🇴 Colombia
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Medellín 🇨🇴 Colombia
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Black-capped Tanager in Medellín?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-capped Tanager sighting in Medellín on a given day, based on 156 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 91st most-seen of the 244 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Black-capped Tanager in Medellín?

February–March and May

In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-capped Tanager in Medellín on a given day, against under 5% in April and June–January, the lowest months.

What time of day is best to see a Black-capped Tanager?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-capped Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Where else can you see a Black-capped Tanager?

Only Medellín, in our data

Medellín is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Black-capped Tanager sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Which relatives of the Black-capped Tanager live in Medellín?

Same genus: Stilpnia

The closest relatives of the Black-capped Tanager that you can see in Medellín (genus Stilpnia, Stilpnia Tanagers) are Scrub Tanager (about 20%) and Blue-necked Tanager (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Black-capped Tanager sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Black-capped Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Medellín (156 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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