Blue-winged Mountain Tanager

Birding Abroad: Blue-winged Mountain Tanager.

Tanagers are those common birds you can see almost everywhere in South-America. Here in Suriname the most common tanagers are Silver-beaked, Palm and Blue Grey Tanagers. But when I visited Mindo (Ecuador) I also met some remarkable tanagers: Mountain Tanagers. 
I managed to photograph two of them, both seen at a feeder.

I guess that if it wasn't for the feeder, it would have been more challenging to spot it between all the trees and branches. Here you see two Blue-winged Mountain Tanagers (Anisognathus somptuosus). Blue-winged Mountain Tanagers are best identified by their .... Blue color on their wings, but also strong bills and their yellow underpart with blue/green upperpart. They are variable and the picture above is a great sample for that as the one on the left has a green back while the one on the right has a black back. But they both belong to the same Species.

Blue-winged Mountain Tanagers are actually social birds as they are seen in pairs, in flocks or in mixed species flocks. When I met these two they had to wait their turn at the feeder as it was traffic that morning.

While you see the Blue-winged Mountain Tanager eating Banana from the feeder they also like invertebrates, berries, seeds and fruits. 
They can reach a length between 16 - 18 cm (about 42 gr) so it is not difficult to spot them and on top of that they are also colorful tanagers. 

The Blue-winged Mountain Tanager is a resident of the Andean forest (also seen in Venezuela and Bolivia). 

As they are energetic birds and will not stay still at the same spot I had to be at the feeder quite early. The Blue-winged Mountain Tanager is a common bird in Ecuador, but nevertheless still worth waiting for.

You may also like other birds from South-America:

velvet purple coronet

pale-mandibled aracari