News by Swasti Sharma
Louisiana, Nov 6: Ornithologists (people who study about birds) have discovered a new group and species of tanager on the lower slopes of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. It is named as Inti tanager (Heliothraupis oneilli – ‘helio’ means the Sun, and ‘thraupis’ means a small bird in Greek and ‘oneilli’ in honour of the ornithologist John O’Neill), ‘Inti’ in the local language of Peru also means ‘the Sun’. These fruit-eating birds display a wide range of plumage colours and patterns, foraging (search for food) behaviours, vocalizations, ecotypes, and habitat preferences. The male tanager has a canary-yellow body with a contrasting black stripe on their head, salmon-pink bill and a bushy crest. The female tanager also has a yellow-coloured body with a bright orange or pink bill but lacks the black eyebrow and the crest. The species was first spotted in 2000. But more details of it were uncovered only in 2011.
After careful genetic analysis and comparing their features, it was classified and belong to Family Thraupidae (a large family of more than 370 songbird species endemic to American tropics) and Order Passeriformes. It was found to be the only member of the genus Heliothraupis and species name oneilli.
