Food is taken by gleaning and clambering through branches to look under leaves as typical for tanagers (Isler & Isler 1987); the birds do not hang down from branches like titmice (Bauer et al. 2000, Venturini et al. 2005).
Tanager birds obtain food by searching under leaves in trees, using a foraging behavior typical of these species (Isler & Isler 1987); in contrast to titmice, they do not hang upside down from branches like some other bird species (Bauer et al. 2000, Venturini et al. 2005).