Tawny-capped Euphonia

The tawny-cappeded euphonia is 10 to 11 cm (3.9 to 4.3 in) long and weighs about 15 g (0.53 oz). It is a small euphonia with a thick bill. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a rich rufous-chestnut crown. The rest of their head and their nape, throat, upperwing coverts, and upperparts are glossy blue-black. Their flight feathers are dusky with dark blue edges and white inner webs at the base of most of them. The upper side of their tail is dark blue-black and the underside dark gray with white inner webs in the middle of the outer two or three pairs of feathers. The center of their lower belly and their undertail coverts are white and the rest of their underpart rich yellow. Adult females have a small dull rufous forehead. Their crown and nape are gray with olive sides on the crown and their face is yellowish with an olive tinge. Their upperparts and wing coverts are olive-green. Their primary coverts are a duskier olive-green and their flight feathers dusky with olive-yellow edges. Their tail is also dusky with olive-yellow feather edges. Their chin and the sides of their throat are yellowish with an olive tinge. The center of their throat and breast are gray to grayish white. Their sides are bright olive-yellow, their flanks yellowish, and their belly and undertail coverts buff to ochre. Subspecies E. a. …

The tawny-capped euphonia has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is the more northerly of the two. It is found in foothills on the Caribbean slope from Alajuela Province in northern Costa Rica south to Chiriquí Province in western Panama. Subspecies E. a. rufiventrix is found on the Caribbean and Pacific slopes from Veraguas Province in west-central Panama south very slightly into extreme northwestern Colombia in the area of Cerro Tacarcuna. The tawny-capped euphonia inhabits the interior, edges, and clearings of tropical evergreen forest, montane forest, and secondary forest. In elevation it ranges between 400 and 1,700 m (1,300 and 5,600 ft) in Costa Rica and between 900 and 2,000 m (3,000 and 6,600 ft) in Panama. It reaches about 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Colombia.

The tawny-capped euphonia feeds primarily on small fruits, and also includes smaller amounts of insects in its diet. It mostly forages in pairs and in small groups, and less often singly. It often joins mixed-species feeding flocks. In the forest it forages primarily from the mid-level to the canopy but often down to the shrub layer in clearings and on edges.