Puerto Rican Tanagers: Puerto Rico Five-One Water Quality Icons

Summary: Puerto Rican tanagers are associated with clean wooded wetlands and are audio-visible during Puerto Rico Five-One water quality month August 2019.

(left) Puerto Rican tanager (Nesospingus speculiferus), under synonym Chlorospingus speculiferus, with (right) Ecuador and Peru's rufous-winged tyrannulet (Serpophaga leucura; Mecocerculus calopterus); depicted by Dutch bird illustrator Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (June 8, 1842-March 29, 1912) for description by American amateur ornithologist George Newbold Lawrence (Oct. 20, 1806-Jan. 17, 1895); M. (Michael) & N. (Nicholas) Hanhart, printers; G.N. Lawrence, The Ibis, vol. V (1875), Plate IX fig. 2, opposite page 383: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr

Puerto Rican tanagers arguably act as amiable advertisements for clean wooded wetlands and as Puerto Rico Five-One national water quality month icons during August 2019 as they never abound in adulterated watersheds.

August 2019 becomes national water quality month throughout the United States, where the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico belongs as one of 16 Caribbean and Pacific possessions. The Treaty of Paris April 11, 1899, concluded the Spanish-American War (April 21, 1898-Aug. 13, 1898) and conveyed the former Spanish colony to the United States. Darren P. Soto, Democratic Congressman for Florida's 9th district, delivered his proposed Puerto Rico Admission Act March 28, 2019, to the United States House of Representatives.

The Puerto Rico Five-One statehood bill, if it engenders 116th Congressional approval, envisions condition-free admission within 90 days of the signed approval of the 45th president.

January through August furnish the three- to four-year life cycles of Puerto Rican tanagers with annual breeding and parenting seasons within their 3,822.41-square-mile (9,900-square-kilometer) territorial range.

The Passeriformes (from Latin passer, "sparrow" and -formis, "shaped") order mothers-to-be gestate one two to three-egg seasonal brood for 11- to 14-day incubations at branch-end nests. They hone 2.56- (6.5-centimeter-) high, 3.62-inch (9.2-centimeter) diameter nests with 1.81-inch- (4.6-centimeter-) deep, 2.91-inch (7.4-centimeter) diameter interiors at 6.56- to 32.81-foot (2- to 10-meter) above-ground heights. The Nesospingus speculiferus species identified by George Lawrence (Oct. 20, 1806-Jan. 1, 1895) interweaves finger-fern (Grammitis), sierra-palm (Prestoea) and snake-fern (Micrograma) foliage and parachute (Marasimus) fungal strands.

Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons juggle brown-red-blotched, scrawled, scribbled, speckled and spotted, semi-glossy, smooth, white 0.93- by 0.68-inch (23.6- by 17.3-millimeter) eggs within feather-lined palms.

Puerto Rican tanagers know dependence as downy-gray, orange-red-mouthed, pink-skinned, yellow-bellied, yellow-gaped hatchlings; semi-independence as feathered 10- to 15-day-old fledglings; and independence as brown-bodied 25- to 29-year-olds.

Brown-eyed, gray-limbed, mature, 1.01- to 1.41-ounce (28.7- to 40-gram) black-billed females and black-brown upper-jawed, white lower-jawed males log 7.09- to 7.87-inch (18- to 20-centimeter) beak-tail lengths. They manifest black crowns and faces; white chins and throats; brown-olive upper-sides, wings and tails; white-spotted primary-feather bases; brown-gray-mottled, streaked, tinged undersides; and white-yellow under-tail coverts. Deliberate, direct, strong, swift-beat canopy and understory flights net Puerto Rican tanagers ants, beetles, centipedes, flies, grasshoppers, lizards, moths, snails, spiders, termites, tree frogs and wasps.

Puerto Rico Five-One water quality icons obtain fruiting, seeding Apocynaceae (dogbane), Araliaceae, Arecaceae (palm), Chrysobalanaceae (cocoplum), Euphorbiaceae (spurge), Fabaceae (legume), Melastomataceae, Podocarpaceae and Sapotaceae family members.

Puerto Rican tanagers prioritize Marcgraviaceae (shingle-plant), Meliaceae (mahogany), Moraceae (mulberry), Myrtaceae (myrtle), Polygonaceae (knotweed), Primulaceae (primrose), Rubiaceae (madder), Santalaceae (sandalwood), Sapindaceae (soapberry), Solanaceae (nightshade) and Verbenaceae.

Puerto Rican tanagers; banaquits; black-and-white, black-throated blue, Cape May and elfin-woods warblers; black-whiskered and Puerto Rican vireos; and lesser Antillean pewees queue up for mixed-species flock-foraging. Puerto Rican tanagers range and roost with northern parulas, pearly-eyed thrashers and Puerto Rican bullfinches, flycatchers and spindalises at 656.17- to 4,389.76-foot (200- to 1,338-meter) altitudes. Harsh chewp-chuck-chi-chi-chit calls against Puerto Rican screech-owls and sharp-shinned hawks; soft tsip-tsip-tsip interspecies calls; and sweet tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-tsweet-schew-schew-schew-chu-wit-see-you-chu-you songs sound throughout Cayey, Cordillera, Luquillo and Maricao peaks.

Puerto Rican tanagers, as llorosas ("sad-singing weepers") and Puerto Rican Five-One water quality icons, turn to branches for bill-tidying and rainbow ants for formic-acid organic insecticides.

Puerto Rican tanagers (Nesospingus speculiferus) are endemic to Puerto Rico, where they have the popular name of Llorosa (crier): SOPI @Aves_PuertoRico, via Twitter July 2, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left) Puerto Rican tanager (Nesospingus speculiferus), under synonym Chlorospingus speculiferus, with (right) Ecuador and Peru's rufous-winged tyrannulet (Serpophaga leucura; Mecocerculus calopterus); depicted by Dutch bird illustrator Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (June 8, 1842-March 29, 1912) for description by American amateur ornithologist George Newbold Lawrence (Oct. 20, 1806-Jan. 17, 1895); M. (Michael) & N. (Nicholas) Hanhart, printers; G.N. Lawrence, The Ibis, vol. V (1875), Plate IX fig. 2, opposite page 383: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51186318709/;
Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8612938

Puerto Rican tanagers (Nesospingus speculiferus) are endemic to Puerto Rico, where they have the popular name of Llorosa (crier): SOPI @Aves_PuertoRico, via Twitter July 2, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/Aves_PuertoRico/status/1013969265706307590

For further information:

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Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22722159/94752830

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