A peculiar colored tanager to say the least where an iridescent blue head and equally vivid yellow throat pop from a background of olive-shaded plumage.

Moss-backed Tanager

“moss-backed tanager, tangara d’edwards, tangara de edwards” by Christoph Moning is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cropped

The moss-backed tanager (Bangsia edwardsi) is a typical chunky-bodied  Bangsia  tanager measuring 6 1/4 (16) in length with a comparatively large-looking head, which is violet-blue, contrasting with the largely dull green body plumage, and the yellow center to the upper breast. The back and underparts are also dull green and the lower bill is yellow.

“moss-backed tanager, tangara d’edwards, tangara de edwards” by Ben Keen is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cropped

Both males and females look very much alike.

However, younger birds show little or no yellow on the breast.

“moss-backed tanager, tangara d’edwards, tangara de edwards” by Christoph Moning is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The species is distributed from west-central Colombia to northwest Ecuador.

“File:Moss-backed Tanager 2015-06-07 (10) (38508211450).jpg” by Don Henise is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped

Moss-backed tanagers prefer to hang around middle to upper levels of moist lowland and moist montane forested areas up to 2100m in altitude.

“File:Moss-backed Tanager 2015-06-07 (14) (26445403128).jpg” by Don Henise is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped

“moss-backed tanager, tangara d’edwards, tangara de edwards” by Christoph Moning is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cropped

Moss-backed Tanagers like to dine on both fruit and arthropods for food, eating fruits more often in the upper canopy and insects more often in the sub-canopy (Posada 2005, Posada and Stiles 2006). They have been reported eating the fruits of melastomes including Miconia majalis and Blakea podagrica (Hilty 1974).

There is only one complete nest description for the Moss-backed Tanager (B. edwardsi) where an open cup-shaped nest was built of moss and ferns on a horizontal branch 2 m above the ground ( Robbins & Glen 1988 ).

“Moss-backed Tanager” by Eric Gropp is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

This bird is regarded as of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

“moss-backed tanager, tangara d’edwards, tangara de edwards” by Christoph Moning is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cropped

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