Last updated on December 8, 2023

White-lined Tanager spotted in Paramaribo, Suriname

Published on October 29, 2023. Last updated on December 8, 2023

I spotted this black bird one afternoon at my neighbor’s backyard. I did not know what kind of bird it was at first, so I posted my observation to iNaturalist as ‘New World Black Birds and Orioles’, but a community member commented that it was either a Tachyphonus rufus (also known as a white-lined bird) or a Tachyphonus phoenicius (also known as a red-shouldered tanager). Upon closer inspection, I withdrawn my previous ID and changed it to a White-lined tanager because of its white line seen in the picture above, and white feathers under its wings in the pictures below.

The genus name Tachyphonus derives from the Greek words takhus meaning fast, and phone meaning sound or voice, thus translates as "fast speaking" (Jobling 2010). The specific epithet, rufus, comes from the Latin word rufus meaning red, which refers to the rufous brown coloration of the female (Jobling 2010) - birdsoftheworld.org