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Rufous-headed tanager

species of bird

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Science and natureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ623428 ↗
Source-derived summary

The rufous-headed tanager (Hemithraupis ruficapilla) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is endemic to Brazil.

Taxonomy and systematics

The rufous-headed tanager was formally described in 1818 with the binomial Nemosia ruficapilla. It was eventually reassigned to its present genus Hemithraupis that the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis erected in 1851. The rufous-headed tanager and the guira tanager (H. guira) hybrize where their ranges overlap; they are sister species and form a superspecies.

The rufous-headed tanager has two subspecies, the nominate H. r. ruficapilla (Vieillot, 1818) and H. r. bahiae (Zimmer, JT, 1947). They are very similar and some authors suggest that they be lumped.

Description

The rufous-headed tanager is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long and weighs 11 to 13 g (0.39 to 0.46 oz).

Editorial summary

“Rufous-headed tanager” enters the record as species of bird. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rufous-headed, tanager and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1818, 1851, 1947—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Rufous-headed, tanager and species.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Rufous-headed tanager” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Rufous-headed, tanager and species provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q623428. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1818, 1851 and 1947.

Critical limits

Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rufous-headed tanager” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.