Blue-capped Tanager
Photo © Julien Renoult
Photo © Julien Renoult — CC BY 4.0 — Source: iNaturalist photo #514833803The blue-capped tanager (Sporathraupis cyanocephala) is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It was formerly placed in the genus Thraupis but is now the only species in the genus Sporathraupis. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest. == Taxonomy == The blue-capped tanager was formally described in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye from a specimen collected in the Bolivian Yungas. They coined the binomial name Aglaia cyanocephala. The species was usually placed in the genus Thraupis but when a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that it was not closely related to other members of Thraupis, it was moved to the resurrected genus Sporathraupis that had been erected in 1898 by Robert Ridgway with the blue-capped tanager as the type species. The genus name Sporathraupis combines the Ancient Greek spora meaning "seed" with thraupis, the word for an unknown small bird. The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek kuanos meaning "dark blue" with -kephalos meaning "-headed". Eight subspecies are recognised: Sporathraupis cyanocephala cyanocephala (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) – Ecuador…
Sangay National Park
Cebadas, Ecuador
+320 birds+10 mammals
High in Ecuador's Andean spine, where the Western Cordillera rises to touch perpetual snow, a landscape of volcanic drama and ecological intensity unfolds across Sangay National…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKRío Negro-Sopladora National Park
Chontal, Ecuador
+84 birds
Where the eastern cordillera of Ecuador descends toward the Amazon basin, the Río Negro-Sopladora National Park sprawls across 615 square kilometers of montane forest and riverine…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPodocarpus National Park
Zamora, Ecuador
+496 birds+6 mammals
Where the Andes descend toward the Amazon basin, Podocarpus National Park sprawls across nearly 2,800 square kilometres of the most biodiverse terrain in Ecuador's southern highlands.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKYacuri National Park
Las Juntas, Ecuador
+166 birds+1 mammals
Where the eastern slopes of the Andes descend into Ecuador's southern frontier, Yacuri National Park unfolds across nearly 1,300 square kilometers of montane cloud forest and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKSumaco Napo-Galeras National Park
Loreto, Ecuador
+563 birds+4 mammals
Where Ecuador's Amazon transitions into cloud forest, a massive shield volcano rises from the emerald lowlands of Orellana Province, anchoring one of the continent's most biodiverse…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKAntisana National Park
Quijos, Ecuador
+432 birds+21 mammals
Where the eastern Andean slopes descend into the Amazon basin, Antisana National Park sprawls across roughly 2,500 square kilometers of some of South America's most dramatic…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Munchique National Park
El Tambo, Colombia
+194 birds
Where the Western Cordillera rises steeply from the Pacific plains of southwestern Colombia, Natural Munchique National Park sprawls across 1,078 square kilometers of montane forest that…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Serranía de los Yariguíes National Park
El Carmen de Chucurí, Colombia
+320 birds+3 mammals
Where the northern cordilleras of Colombia rise toward cloud forest, the Serranía de los Yariguíes unfolds across nearly 1,820 square kilometers of some of the most…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Farallones de Cali National Park
Buenaventura, Colombia
+733 birds+27 mammals
Where the Pacific coastal plain meets the western slopes of the Andes, Farallones de Cali National Park sprawls across nearly 3,500 square kilometers of dramatic topography…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKNatural Chingaza National Park
Junín, Colombia
+285 birds+6 mammals
Where the Andes rise above three thousand metres in the Cundinamarca region, high-altitude grasslands and cloud forests converge in a landscape shaped by both geology and…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKPuracé National Natural Park
Puracé, Colombia
+327 birds+2 mammals
Where the Andes thrust upward across southwestern Colombia, Puracé National Natural Park spans nearly 2,631 square kilometers of some of South America's most dramatic montane terrain.…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKGuácharos Cave National Natural Park
Acevedo, Colombia
+359 birds
High in the Andean foothills of southern Huila, where mist-laden slopes rise above 1,600 metres, lies a landscape carved by underground rivers and crowned by karst…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKEl Tamá National Park
Toledo, Colombia
+435 birds
Where the Andes descend toward the Caribbean coastal lowlands of northern Colombia, El Tamá National Park sprawls across nearly 3,800 square kilometres of montane forest, cloud…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKYanachaga–chemillén National Park
Palcazu, Peru
+639 birds+6 mammals
Where the eastern slopes of Peru's central cordillera plunge into cloud forest, Yanachaga–Chemillén National Park protects nearly three thousand square kilometres of montane wilderness that few…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKManu National Park
Manu, Peru
+892 birds+26 mammals
Across the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes, tropical rainforest descends into the Amazon basin with a complexity that few terrestrial ecosystems match. Manu National Park…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKTingo Maria National Park
Mariano Dámaso Beraún, Peru
+423 birds
Where the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes descend toward the Amazon basin, the landscape fractures into a maze of limestone ridges, humid gorges, and cloud-wrapped…
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