The dusky chlorospingus is also known as the dusky bush tanager and dusky-bellied bush tanager. I saw it in Tatama NNP on the dirt road up Montezuma Mountain. My guide pointed it out at the same time we were trying to locate a masked trogon that had just flown and my guide, sensing I was spending too much time trying to get a photo of it, told me not to worry about it (he had a more important bird he wanted me to see).
It is choco-endemic, that is it is only found in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador. There are two subspecies. We saw livingstoni, which is found on the west slopes of the Western Andes from south Choco to south Cauca.
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| Dusky chlorospingus range from Wikipedia. |
The crown and side of the head on livingstoni are dark gray (less brown than the other subspecies, semifuscus), the upperparts are smoky olive (instead of dark olive) and the eyes are yellowish-white (instead of reddish brown).
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| The olive on the back is barely visible. |
I guess you have to be a real birder to consider this a "more important bird" to see. It's amazing the guide could even pick it out.
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