About Piranga leucoptera Trudeau, 1840
The white-winged tanager (Piranga leucoptera Trudeau, 1840) is approximately 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 13 to 20 g (0.46 to 0.71 oz). The nominate subspecies male is mostly red, with a black facial mask and black wings marked with white wing bars. The female is dull olive-yellow, but keeps the black wings and white wing bars. Juveniles resemble females but are duller in color. For the subspecies P. l. latifasciata, males are darker red and females are a more intense yellow; both sexes have broader white wing bars. Males of P. l. venezuelae only differ from the nominate subspecies in having a smaller black mask. P. l. ardens is similar to P. l. venezuelae, except its lower wing bar is narrower. The white-winged tanager has a range made up of several discontinuous areas, with each of the four subspecies occupying a distinct segment. P. l. leucoptera is found from southern Tamaulipas state in Mexico, south through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras to north central Nicaragua. P. l. latifasciata occurs in Costa Rica and western Panama. P. l. venezuelae inhabits the Andes of Colombia (excluding Nariño Department), east through Venezuela into Guyana and far northern Brazil. P. l. ardens lives on the west slope of the Andes from Nariño in Colombia south to southwestern Ecuador, and on the east slope from Ecuador through Peru to Bolivia's Chuquisaca Department. In Mexico and northern Central America, the white-winged tanager lives in pine-oak forest and shady coffee plantations. Across the rest of its range, it occurs in humid montane forest, cloud forest, and mature secondary forest, and can also be found in coffee plantations and drier forest. Its elevation range varies by location: in Mexico it occurs between 100 and 1,800 m (330 and 5,910 ft), and is mostly found above 600 m (2,000 ft) on the Atlantic side; in Costa Rica it is found between 1,100 and 1,850 m (3,610 and 6,070 ft); in Venezuela north of the Orinoco River it ranges from 650 to 2,100 m (2,130 to 6,890 ft), and south of the river from 1,000 to 1,800 m (3,300 to 5,900 ft); in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru it is found between 600 and 2,000 m (2,000 and 6,600 ft).
