His bright lemon-yellow bib and belly stand out even more starkly in contrast with his iridescent blue back black head and piercing red eyes.

Meet the Hooded Mountain-Tanager

The hooded mountain tanager (Buthraupis montana) has bright iridescent blue upper parts and lemon yellow breast and belly. This stunning bird’s look is finished off with a black hood and throat with piercing red eyes. at 23 centimeters (9.1 in) and 85 grams (3.0 oz), it is one of the largest tanagers (second in weight only to the white-capped tanager).

Birds in the southern portion of their range have a light blue nape band.

They are easily distinguished from Black-chested Mountain Tanager (Buthraupis exima) by the blue, rather than green back, and the bright red eyes.

This bird is found in the wooded area of the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Photo Courtesy of Joao Quental / CC BY 2.0

They are more common in humid montane forests on the eastern slopes of the Andes at elevations ranging between 2200-3500 m.

Although there is not a lot of information on this bird’s breeding habits, they appear to breed from October through to January. Similar species have a clutch size of 3-5 eggs and the females incubate the eggs alone for 10-13 days. The chicks of these species fledge 8-11 days after hatching.

Hooded mountain tanager likes to dine on arthropods, taking insects and spiders, but has also been seen eating berries.

This bird vocalizes moderately throughout the year, but it sings as it circles above the canopy at twilight and has been regarded as of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

You can watch this bird right here in the video below: