Blue-backed tanager

The blue-backed tanager (Cyanicterus cyanicterus) is a species of South American bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Cyanicterus.

Blue-backed tanager
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Cyanicterus Bonaparte, 1850
Species:	C. cyanicterus
Binomial name
Cyanicterus cyanicterus (Vieillot, 1819)
Synonyms
Pyranga cyanicterus (protonym)

It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

Taxonomy

The blue-backed tanager was formally described in 1819 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the binomial name Pyranga cyanicterus.^[2] The type locality is Cayenne in French Guiana.^[3] This species is now the only member of the genus Cyanicterus that was introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850.^[4][5] The word cyanicterus is formed from the Ancient Greek kuanos meaning "dark-blue" and ikteros meaning "jaundice-yellow".^[6] The blue-backed tanager is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[5]