Birds
Paradise Tanager
Tangara chilensis · also called seven-coloured tanager
Flitting through the Amazon canopy in a mixed-species flock, a paradise tanager displays a combination of turquoise, black, red, yellow-green, and sky blue rarely matched by any other bird on Earth, a living demonstration of just how colourful evolution can get.
Overview
The paradise tanager, Tangara chilensis, is one of the most vividly coloured birds in the world, native to rainforest habitat across the Amazon basin of South America. Its extraordinary combination of turquoise, red, black, and sky-blue plumage, habit of joining mixed-species foraging flocks, and near-exclusive canopy lifestyle make it one of the most visually spectacular and behaviourally social tanagers found anywhere in the Amazon.
A living palette in the canopy
Few birds anywhere pack as many distinct colours into a single body as the paradise tanager, whose combination of turquoise, red, and sky blue makes it stand out even within a rainforest canopy already crowded with colourful competition.
Status
Least Concern, remaining widespread across suitable rainforest habitat throughout the Amazon basin.
Paradise Tanager: common questions
How many colours does the paradise tanager have?
This species combines turquoise, black, red, yellow-green, and sky blue in a single bird, one of the most vividly multicoloured combinations documented in any bird species, making it one of the most visually striking tanagers found anywhere in the Amazon.
Why does the paradise tanager join mixed-species flocks?
This species frequently joins mixed-species foraging flocks alongside other tanager species, a behaviour that may improve foraging efficiency and predator detection for all species involved, since more birds scanning for danger and food benefits the whole group.
Does the paradise tanager ever come down to the ground?
Rarely; this species spends nearly all of its time in the middle and upper rainforest canopy, rarely if ever descending to the forest floor, reflecting its reliance on canopy fruit and insects for food.
Where does the paradise tanager live?
This species is native to rainforest habitat across a broad range spanning the Amazon basin of South America, spending its life almost entirely within the forest canopy rather than lower vegetation or the ground.