Female Silver-beaked Tanager

Sightings
Silver-beaked Tanager is a regular visitor to the bird feeders at the Asa Wright Centre. The male of the species is particularly attractive but this photo of a female Silver-beaked Tanager, taken during a rainstorm, shows that it is also a beautiful bird.

Species
Silver-beaked Tanager Ramphocelus carbo is a resident breeder in South America from eastern Colombia and Venezuela south to Paraguay and central Brazil, Peru and on Trinidad. It occurs apparently in light woodland and cultivated areas although I have seen this species on the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Peru and Asa Wright is in fact situated in a rainforest. There are eight subspecies of which R. c. magnirostris is endemic to Trinidad.

Status and Distribution
It is a species of least concern with a stable population in a breeding range of more than eleven million square kilometres. It is a common and widespread resident on Trinidad but absent on Tobago.

References
Asa Wright Centre; BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 220

Photograph
Photographed in a dull afternoon during a rainstorm at 1/500th of a second, f5.6 and ISO 2500