Red-throated Ant-Tanager, Habia fuscicauda

Red-throated Ant-Tanager, Habia fuscicauda. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California, taken in the coastal region of Costa Rica, February 2016.

The Red-throated Ant-Tanager, Habia fuscicauda fusauda, is one of six subspecies of Red-throated Ant-Tanager, two of which are found in Mexico. They are a member of the Cardinalidae Family of Cardinals and Allies, which has forty-nine members placed in fourteen genera, and one of five global species of the Habia Genus. They are known in Mexico as habia gorjirroja.

The Red-throated Ant-Tanager is mid-sized in stature. They are strongly sexually dichromatic with the males being dusky red above with a bright red throat and females being olive-brown above and with a bright yellow throat. Their bill of the males is black, the bill of the females is cream color, their iris is dark brown and their legs and toes are pinkish brown.

The Red-throated Ant-Tanager are found in humid to semiarid undergrowth, evergreen to semideciduous forests as-well-as secondary growth forests, woodlands, and thickets. They are generally found in groups of three to eight individuals. They are omnivorous with a diet consisting mainly of seasonal berries, fruits, insects and other small arthropods, and lizards. They are known for their unique song. Their life spans are unknown. The Red-throated Ant-Tanager has been poorly studied and very little has been documented about their biology or behavior patterns.

The Red-throated Ant-Tanager is a year-round resident being found in southeast Mexico within the Atlantic Slope from San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas south to Belize, and within the Pacific Slope, in a narrow band of lowland forest in Oaxaca and Chipas at elevations up to 3,300 m (10,800 feet), but are more common at the lower elevations. The fusauda subspecies is not found in Mexico; it is found in southern Nicaragua, throughout Costa Rica and in western Panama.

From a conservation perspective the Red-throated Ant-Tanager is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations.