The white-winged tanager (Piranga leucoptera ) is a medium-sized American songbird in the family Cardinalidae, the cardinals or cardinal grosbeaks. It is found from Mexico, through Central America, across northern South America and as far south as Bolivia.
The white-winged tanager is approximately 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 13 to 20 g (0.46 to 0.71 oz). The nominate male is mostly red, with a black "mask" and black wings with white wing bars. The female is dull olive-yellow, but retains the black wings and white wing bars. The juvenile is similar to the female, but duller. The male P. l. latifasciata is darker red and the female a more intense yellow; both sexes have broader white wing bars. The male P. l. venezuelae differs from the nominate only in having a smaller "mask". P. l. ardens is similar to venezuelae but the lower wing bar is narrower.
The range of white-winged tanager consists of several discontinuous areas. The four subspecies are found thus:
In Mexico and northern Central America the white-winged tanager inhabits pine-oak forest and shady coffee plantations. In the rest of its range it is found in humid montane forest, cloud forest, and mature secondary forest. It also can be found in coffee plantations and drier forest. In Mexico it ranges between 100 to 1,800 m (330 to 5,910 ft) of elevation, though it 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). It is found between 600 and 2,000 m (2,000 and 6,600 ft) in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The white-winged tanager's diet includes fruit, berries, seeds, and probably insects. Pairs and small groups forage in the forest canopy or edge and may join mixed-species foraging flocks.
A female white-winged tanager was documented building a small cup nest high up on a mossy branch. No other information about the species' breeding phenology has been published.
