Black-goggled tanager

Description

The black-goggled tanager is 15.7 to 16.8 cm (6.2 to 6.6 in) long and weighs 16.2 to 26.0 g (0.57 to 0.92 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a yellow crown that is usually hidden and a large black mask from the forehead to past the eye on an otherwise brownish-tinged olive-gray face. Their nape, back, rump, and uppertail coverts are also olive-gray with a brownish tinge. Their upperwing coverts are dusky. Their primary coverts are blackish and their flight feathers mostly blackish with white bands at the base of the secondaries and the center of the primaries. The white is seldom seen except in flight. Their tail is blackish. Their throat and underparts are mostly buff that is palest in the center of the belly. Their undertail coverts have a buffy cinnamon tinge and their underwing coverts are white. Adult females are overall duller than males. Their head is entirely brownish olive-gray with no yellow and at most a minimal amount of black. Their wings are not as dark as the male's. Compared to the nominate, males of subspecies T. m. griseonota have a larger black mask that extends onto most of the ear coverts, a grayer, less olive, back, a more buff-yellow breast, and creamier undertail coverts. Females have somewhat darker underparts than the nominate. Both sexes of both subspecies have a dark reddish brown iris, a blue-gray bill whose maxilla is sometimes duskier, and grayish horn legs.

Distribution and habitat

The two subspecies of the black-goggled tanager have widely separated ranges. According to most sources the nominate is found in Brazil south from a line roughly from west-central Mato Grosso east to the Atlantic in east-central Bahia to central Rio Grande do Sul, and from there continues its range across eastern Paraguay and into northeastern Argentina. However, the SACC includes Uruguay in the species' range. Subspecies T. m. griseonota is found along the eastern slope of the Andes from northwestern San Martín and southern Amazonas departments in northern Peru south through Bolivia and just into northern Jujuy Province in northwestern Argentina.

The two subspecies inhabit different landscapes. The nominate is found in somewhat open terrain such as shrublands, the edges of forest, gallery forest, and regrowing clearings. In Brazil it ranges in elevation from sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft). Subspecies T. m. griseonota inhabits the edges and gaps in of humid montane forest where it favors areas with dense undergrowth. In Peru it ranges in elevation between 900 and 1,800 m (3,000 and 5,900 ft) but is found down to 350 m (1,100 ft) in Bolivia.

Behavior

Movement

The black-goggled tanager is believed to be a year-round resident.

Feeding

The black-goggled tanager feeds on insects and fruits. It usually forages in pairs or small family groups but sometimes in groups as large as 12 individuals. Especially in the Andes it regularly joins mixed-species feeding flocks. In Brazil it regularly attends army ant swarms and has been seen following monkey troops to capture prey disturbed by both. It hops restlessly through vegetation seeking food and sometimes takes it in mid-air or with a short sally to foliage.

Breeding

The black-goggled tanager's breeding season has not been defined, but in Brazil there is breeding evidence from September to November and in January. One nest was a cup in a patch of bamboo and contained three nestlings. Another had eggs that were pinkish white with darker markings. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

In Brazil the black-goggled tanager has two songs. One is "tseee wer-sit-je (1st part extr. high, 2nd part mid-high, each not emphasized)" and the other is a "very long series with buzzes, whistles, short ps notes; the same note often repeated several times". There its calls are an "extr. high, sharp, emphasized tcip or upslurred pseee". However, as of September 2026 xeno-canto had no recordings of black-goggled tanager vocalizations in Peru; the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library had one of a song and three of calls. Both had a few recordings from Bolivia. The song of the Andean subspecies has not been described but sonograms of its calls resemble those of the nominate.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the black-goggled tanager as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered "common to frequent" in Brazil but "uncommon and local" in Peru with "few records north of Huánuco [Department]". "Extensive intact, unprotected habitat remains within this species’ range in Andes, but in parts of southeast Brazil deforestation is so complete that most of the unprotected habitat within the former range of this species has disappeared, and it is now confined largely to parks and reserves."