Slaty Tanager

The slaty tanager is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 16 to 20 g (0.56 to 0.71 oz). It has a heavy beak. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males have a chestnut cap that encompasses the upper half of its head and its nape; it has a thin black line below it. Their rest of their head and their body, wings, and tail are slate-gray. Adult females have a dark gray crown, a thin white supercilium, dark gray [[Lore (anatomy) |lores]] whose color extends past the eye, and bright rufous ear coverts. Their nape, upperparts, wings, and tail are slate-gray. Their chin and upper throat are white, their breast, sides, and flanks are bright rufous, and the center of their lower breast, their belly, and their undertail coverts are white. Both sexes have a reddish brown iris, a blackish bill, and grayish horn legs.

The slaty tanager is found along the eastern slope of the Andes from eastern Junín Department in central Peru south into Bolivia at least as far as Cochabamba Department. It primarily inhabits the interior of humid, wet, mossy cloudforest and mature secondary forest. In elevation it ranges between 1,200 and 2,500 m (3,900 and 8,200 ft).

The slaty tanager feeds primarily on arthropods with minor amounts of fruits in its diet. It usually forages singly or in pairs as part of a mixed-species feeding flock, and usually in the forest canopy or subcanopy. It is rather active, hopping along tree limbs to leafy areas where it takes prey from foliage.