Green-headed tanager
© Juan Carlos Vindas/Getty Image
Green-headed tanager
In much of Brazil, July is synonymous with cold weather, mist and muted tones. The green-headed tanager goes in the opposite direction. Green, blue, turquoise, yellow, black, orange and touches of violet come together on a body just over 13 centimetres long, appearing among the branches like a living argument for extravagance. It is no surprise that it frequently features on lists of the most beautiful birds in the world.
Endemic to the Atlantic Forest, it lives in humid forests and coastal restinga habitats stretching from southern Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul, including preserved fragments in São Paulo state, where today's photo was taken. It usually moves in pairs or small groups and joins mixed-species flocks. As it searches for fruit, nectar and small insects, it inadvertently disperses seeds and helps regenerate the forest.
It moves quickly, but the sight of it slows the observer down. In forests where green dominates almost everything, the seven-coloured tanager seems to have answered with every colour it found along the way.
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