Diet and Foraging

Blue-necked Tanagers are omnivorous; the diet primarily consists of fruit, but also includes insects and flower buds. In Valle, Colombia (n = 138), fruit was taken in 86% of observations, with insects (13%) and flower buds (1%) consumed less frequently. At this site, at least 24 species of fruit were included in the diet, primarily Miconia berries (51% of all fruit eaten) and Cecropia catkins (19%). Perches upright on twigs or branches to pick berries which it swallowed whole; rarely pecked pieces out of larger fruit. Hang from leaves, petioles, or catkins to eat Cecropia fruits. Insects primarily are captured in flight by sallies to air, and less commonly by sallies to leaves; also searched flower heads and a fruiting stalk of a palm (Hilty data cited in Isler and Isler (1987). Similarly, Naoki (2003a) found that Blue-necked Tanager primarily captured insects with sallies to air, although fruit is taken with gleans.