The Black-backed Tanager is about 14 cm long and endemic to Atlantic Forest along southeastern Brazil. It mainly occupies coastal sandbank forest and lowland forest.
The male has a chestnut head and nape, a dark eye mask and black back; the rump and wing coverts are yellowish buff. The female is duller and greener and lacks the black back.
It uses coastal sandbank forest, restinga scrub and lowland forest. Fruit is its main food, with insects and spiders from canopy vegetation. It also visits secondary forest, pasture edges, gardens and orchards when fruit-bearing plants ripen.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.