Hooded Tanager

The hooded tanager is 12 to 13.5 cm (4.7 to 5.3 in) long and weighs 12 to 21 g (0.42 to 0.74 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies N. p. pileata have white lores and a white throat and sides of the neck on an otherwise black head. Their lower nape and their upperparts, wings, and tail are grayish blue. Their underparts are white with pale gray flanks. Adult females have the same white lores as males but the rest of their head is the same grayish blue as their upperparts. Their white underparts have a buff tinge that is heaviest on the sides of the throat and breast. Both sexes have a yellow iris and yellow or yellow-brown legs and feet. Males have a black bill; females have a black maxilla and a grayish white or light gray mandible. Juveniles have pale blue upperparts, bluish gray underparts, and rose-orange legs and feet. The other subspecies of the hooded tanager differ from the nominate and each other thus:

N. p. hypoleuca: male - little or no gray on the flanks; female - paler buffy tinge on underparts than nominate N. p. surinamensis: larger than nominate with darker upperparts N. p. interna: smaller than nominate with paler upperparts N. p. nana: darker more purplish blue upperparts and darker bluish gray sides than nominate N. p. caerulea: larger than nominate

The hooded tanager has a disjunct distribution with a large gap in the northern Amazon Basin between N. p. hypoleuca and N. p. surinamensis in the north and N. p. interna, N. p. nana, and N. p. caerulea in the south. In addition, N. p. hypoleuca has gaps in its range, and N. p. pileata has populations on both sides of the Amazon Basin gap. The subspecies are found thus:

N. p. hypoleuca: northern Colombia from Córdoba Department east to Magdalena Department and south in the valley of the Magdalena River to southern Cesar Department; western Venezuela's Maracaibo Basin in Zulia, western Lara, and southeastern Falcón; intermittently in Venezuela east of the Andes from western Apure north to the Capital District and east to western Delta Amacuro and northeastern Bolívar state N. p. surinamensis: Guyana and Suriname N. p. pileata: French Guiana; Brazil south of the Amazon between the Madeira and Tapajós rivers and south into extreme northern Bolivia N. p. interna: north-central Brazil in the Negro and Branco river basins N. p. nana: from northeastern Peru's Marañón River basin east across extreme southeastern Colombia into western Brazil to the lower Madeira N. p. …

The hooded tanager feeds primarily on insects, occasionally eats fruit, and might also eat nectar. It forages in pairs or family groups and occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages mostly high in trees but sometimes in lower shrubs. It takes most prey by gleaning from leaves and bark and takes some from spider webs with a brief hover.