Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Status NT
Destruction of foothill and montane forests, primarily due to burning, logging and conversion to agricultural use, is the main threat.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Food
Fruit, insects and spiders. Occasionally extracts nectar by removing and damaging flowers.
Blue-and-gold Tanager (Bangsia arcaei) [XC52414]
by id from Quebrada Gonzalez, Braulio Carrillo NP, Limon, Costa Rica (song)
Subspecies
In the past, genus sometimes subsumed in Buthraupis, but this treatment not supported by recent molecular-genetic studies, which place it in a separate clade, with Wetmorethraupis as sister to it. In addition, members of present genus are smaller in size and shorter-tailed than Buthraupis, relatively uniform in plumage, behaviourally less social and occur mostly at lower elevations. Recent specimens apparently of this species from Colombia may represent an undescribed form. Further study is required.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
caeruleigularis (Ridgway, 1893) - Caribbean slope of Costa Rica from extreme south-eastern Guanacaste south to Cartago (including slopes of volcanoes Turrialba, Irazú, Barba and Poas).
arcaei (Sclater & Salvin, 1869) - Western and eastern Panama (locally in central Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí and both slopes in Veraguas east to Coclé; vicinity of Cerro Jefe, also Cerro Brewster, in western San Blas).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet