Ramphocelus
Ramphocelus is a Neotropical genus of birds of the tanager family. They have enlarged shiny whitish or bluish-grey lower mandibles, which are pointed upwards in display. However, this is greatly reduced in the females of most species. Males are black and red, orange or yellow, while females resemble a duller version of the males, or are brownish or greyish combined with dull red, orange or yellowish.
Ramphocelus tanagers are found in semi-open areas. The nest is a cup built by the female of plant materials such as moss, rootlets, and strips of large leaves like banana or Heliconia, and is often in a fairly open site in a tree. The female usually lays pale blue eggs, with grey, brown or lavender spots, and the young stay in the nest for only about 12 days.
The songs of this genus are repetitions of rich one- or two-syllable whistles.
Ramphocelus tanagers hunt at forest edges or in second growth, taking insects in flight or picking them from leaves.
Taxonomy
The genus Ramphocelus was introduced by the French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest in 1805. The name combines the Ancient Greek words rhamphos "bill" and koilos "concave".The crimson-collared tanager is sometimes placed in a genus of its own as Phlogothraupis sanguinolenta, and a genetic study suggests that it is less closely related to the other Ramphocelus tanagers than they are to each other. Its closest relative is masked crimson tanager.
The other species form two superspecies. One includes crimson-backed, Huallaga, silver-beaked and Brazilian tanagers, and the other comprises Passerini's, Cherrie's and flame-rumped tanagers.
The subspecies icteronotus of the flame-rumped tanager is sometimes considered a separate species, and the lemon-rumped tanager, R. icteronotus, and Passerini's and Cherrie's tanager were formerly lumped as scarlet-rumped tanager, R. passerinii.
Species in taxonomic order
The genus contains nine species:| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
| Ramphocelus sanguinolentus | Crimson-collared tanager | southern Veracruz and northern Oaxaca in Mexico through the Atlantic slope of Central America,western Panama | |
| Ramphocelus nigrogularis | Masked crimson tanager | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru | |
| Ramphocelus dimidiatus | Crimson-backed tanager | Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela, and introduced to French Polynesia | |
| Ramphocelus melanogaster | Huallaga tanager | Peru | |
| Ramphocelus carbo | Silver-beaked tanager | South America from eastern Colombia and Venezuela south to Paraguay and central Brazil, Perú and on Trinidad | |
| Ramphocelus bresilius | Brazilian tanager | eastern Brazil and far northeastern Argentina | |
| Ramphocelus passerinii | Scarlet-rumped tanager | Caribbean lowlands from southern Mexico to western Panama | |
| Ramphocelus flammigerus | Flame-rumped tanager | Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru | |
| Ramphocelus icteronotus | Lemon-rumped tanager | Panama to Ecuador |