Tackling Tanagers

Our technical understanding of Tanagers is, frankly, messy. These vibrant birds delight birders and taunt the taxonomists. Their great diversity in behavior, appearance, and genetics challenge Western scientific systems, which try to organize living organisms within tidy, hierarchical boxes. Tanagers, it turns out, are remarkably resistant to being boxed in.

Taxonomy is regularly rewritten as we discover more through improved genetic tools and continued observation. Birds who look like Tanagers - small to medium-sized, often colorful, and often fruit-eating songbirds of the Neotropics - were groups together. After all, taxonomy is yet very dependent on visible characteristics, or morphology. Today, geneticists are discovering that many of these birds are not as closely related as once understood. Some "tanagers" were rehomed into entirely different families, while others were suddenly welcomed into the tanager fold. I know dance too well as I study fungi, who are notoriously recategorized as interest in them grows. 

Today, the family Thraupidae is one of the largest and most dynamic bird families in the world.

I tried to wrap my head around this taxonomic tangle myself, after returning to the States from Panama two years ago. I arrived home just in time for the hectic holiday season, weighed down by roughly 1,600 photos and a long checklist of birds I had apparently observed within just eight days in-country. My first-ever birding booklet was filled with checkmarks - many of which populated the Tanagers sections that spread across multiple, dense pages. After some much-needed exposure to birds in general (they were admittedly not as enchanting to me and fungi), then some focused curiosity on Tanagers, I found myself deeper in the weeds than before. Eventually, I relinquished that I didn't want to be taunted by Tanager taxonomy - I wanted to linger on the birds' simple, inherent beauty. 

Now, at the end of 2025, I'm reminded of my time in the bird-rich isthmus for two reasons. My phone has been faithfully resurfacing photo memories of Panama's birds over the past few weeks, and I've also been savoring stories from the Museum's own Jenny Shanks, who recently returned from the enchanting Galapagos Islands through the same Nature Based Travel program that afforded us both such splendid adventures. 

Tanagers  - both true and those birds still casually called tanagers - were frequent subjects of our records. Below, I hope to share just a small taste of Panama's many Tanagers. Sometimes photos do more justice than any words can. 

A "tanger-like" bird, the Streaked Saltator. Photo by Mollie Kreb-Mertig.

A flash of scarlet in the canopy - a Crimson-backed Tanager - vivid enough to 
stop any level of birder in their tracks. Photo by Mollie Kreb-Mertig.

Palm Tanagers are common, quietly elegant birds. Rice feeders
often lure them into view for tourists near Pipeline Road. Photo by Bob Brereton.

Two contrasting companions, Crimson-backed Tanager and Blue-gray Tanager.
Photo by Bob Brereton.

I barely caught a useful photo of this Tawny-crested Tanager - whose place among Tanagers has shifted with new genetic insights. Photo by Mollie Kreb-Mertig.

Once grouped with Tanagers based on looks alone, this Buff-throated Saltator
now sits in their own family of Saltators. Photo by Bob Brereton.

A true member of the diverse Thraupidae family, the Dusky-faced Tanager
illustrates the wide definition of Tanager. Photo by Bob Brereton.