Swallow Tanager (Tersina viridis) [XC627545]
by Mauricio Cuellar Ramirez (@Birding.travel) from Cerro Traves\u00edas - Florencia, Caquet\u00e1, Colombia (call)
Swallow Tanager (Tersina viridis) [XC127621]
by Martin St-Michel from Puerto Lopez, Meta, Colombia (song)
Subspecies
This species has in the past been placed in its own family, Tersinidae, and in a subfamily Tersininae of present family. Molecular-genetic data indicate that it is embedded within present family, and forms a monophyletic group with Dacnis and Cyanerpes. All three genera have sexually dimorphic plumage, but present genus differs in broad flat bill, skeletal elements of palate and tongue, long wing, hole-nesting behaviour, and migratory habits.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
grisescens Griscom, 1929 - Santa Marta Mts, in northern Colombia.
occidentalis (Sclater, PL, 1855) - Eastern Panama (Darién), Colombia (except Santa Marta Mts), northern Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas, western and eastern Ecuador, northern and eastern Peru, northern and western Brazil, north-western and eastern Bolivia (except extreme south-east) and north-western Argentina.
viridis (Illiger, 1811) - Eastern and southern Brazil (from Pernambuco, Bahia, Goiás and southern Mato Grosso south to Rio Grande do Sul), north-eastern Bolivia, Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina (Misiones).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet