Hi, friends.  I hope you are taking care of yourselves and each other.  This week our subject is the silver-beaked tanager.  Like last week’s bird, it lives in large parts of South America, and I’m just going to paste from last week here: including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and into Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Trinidad.  Adults are 18 cm (7 in) long and weigh 25 grams (0.88 oz).  Adult males are a deep red-into-black color, females and juveniles are rust colored.  In males, the upper mandible of the beak is black, the larger lower mandible is silver.  Females have a uniform black bill.  As part of a mating display, the male will point his bill upward, showing off the silver portion. 

These birds feed on a more or less expected diet, eating mainly fruit but also vines, nectar, short grass and insects.  When eating fruit it will pick out smaller pieces or crush the fruit to make it easier to eat.  It is also known to hang onto branches upside down while eating fruit. 

These birds do not migrate and are not territorial outside of the breeding season.  They tend to live in groups of two to seven individuals, and will often make an effort to build nests near each other.  They will also reuse nests, like a lot of other birds we have covered.  It makes sense, if a given nest resulted in healthy young who lived long enough to leave, it must have good qualities.  Most broods consist of a pair of eggs laid on consecutive days.  They are brooded over by the female for about 12 days, and fledge about 12 days after hatching.  The silver-beaked tanager is not threatened, and appears to coexist well with humans.  It is found in woodlands, cultivated areas and areas inhabited by humans.  

Our quote this week comes from Edith Wharton, who said “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”  I know that the world can sometimes seem like a self-perpetuating cycle of stress and negativity, but that’s not all there is out there.  Be well, PT.  There is good in the world.

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