Tanagers (Thraupidae)

Bay-headed Tanager (Tangara gyrola) - HBW 16, p. 226

French: Calliste rouverdin German: Grüntangare Spanish: Tangara Cabecibaya
Other common names: Green Tanager; Bay-and-blue Tanager (“albertinae group”); Bay-and-green Tanager (“viridissima group”)

Taxonomy: Fringilla Gyrola Linnaeus, 1758, Suriname.
Forms a superspecies with T. lavinia; replaced by latter in wet Chocó–Pacific lowlands. Races probably constitute more than a single species; morphological differences between some races as great as those between present species and T. lavinia. Races appear to form three plumage groups: “albertinae group” (including bangsi, deleticia, nupera, catharinae and parva), with blue underparts; “viridissima group” (including toddi), with green underparts; and monotypic “gyrola group”, with mixed underparts; these have in the past been treated as three separate species. Name“gyroloides”, dating to 1847, was in the past applied variously to birds of races deleticia, albertinae or catherinae; however, it is a replacement name for the preoccupied “Aglaïa Peruviana”, which is itself unidentifiable due to contradictory features in the description. Nine subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

bangsi (Hellmayr, 1911) - E Nicaragua, Costa Rica and W Panama (E to Panamá).
deleticia (Bangs, 1908) - E Panama (Darién) and generally in W Colombia (E to W slope of E Andes, S to Patía Valley, in Nariño).
nupera Bangs, 1917 - SW Colombia (Nariño S of Patía Valley), W Ecuador and NW Peru (Tumbes).

See all 9 subspecies

bangsi (Hellmayr, 1911) - E Nicaragua, Costa Rica and W Panama (E to Panamá).
deleticia (Bangs, 1908) - E Panama (Darién) and generally in W Colombia (E to W slope of E Andes, S to Patía Valley, in Nariño).
nupera Bangs, 1917 - SW Colombia (Nariño S of Patía Valley), W Ecuador and NW Peru (Tumbes).
toddi Bangs & T. E. Penard, 1921 - N Colombia (Sierra de Santa Marta, Sierra de Perijá, and E slope of E Andes in Norte de Santander and N Boyacá) and mountains of W & N Venezuela (E to Miranda).
viridissima (Lafresnaye, 1847) - mountains of NE Venezuela and Trinidad.
catharinae (Hellmayr, 1911) - E base of E Andes of Colombia (from Meta and Macarena Mts) S to E Ecuador, E Peru and Bolivia (S to Cochabamba and W Santa Cruz).
parva J. T. Zimmer, 1943 - S Venezuela (SW Amazonas), adjacent E Colombia, and mountains of adjacent N Brazil (upper R Negro).
gyrola (Linnaeus, 1758) - S Venezuela (from N Amazonas and NW Bolívar) E across the Guianas and extreme N Brazil (headwaters of R Uraricoera E to C & S Amapá).
albertinae (Pelzeln, 1877) - NE Peru (Loreto) and Brazil S of R Amazon (from R Purús E to NE Pará and S to N Mato Grosso).