MEET THE BLUE-GRAY TANAGER
The Blue-Gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) is a small bird, measuring approximately 18 cm in length and weighing approximately 35 grams. It has a light grey head, darker upperparts and paler blue-grey under parts. Its bill is rather short and stout.
They also have a shoulder patch which is a darker shade of blue.
Both sexes are very similar, however immature birds appear duller when compared to their adult counterparts.
This bird’s range is from Mexico down south to northeast Bolivia and northern Brazil, all of the way into the Amazon Basin, except for the very south. It has also been introduced to Peru.
Blue-gray Tanager prefers to live in open and semi-open areas with larger trees and hedges, towns, villages, and gardens in tropical and subtropical regions.
The Blue-gray Tanager mostly feeds on fruit, but will also sometimes take some nectar and insects. It thrives around human habitation and will take some cultivated fruit like papaya.
These birds like to breed in open woodland, cultivated areas, and gardens. One to three, usually two, dark-marked whitish to grey-green eggs are laid within a deep cup-shaped nest in a high tree fork or building crevice. Incubation is solely done by the female for around 14 days with another 17 to fledging. Their nests are sometimes parasitized by Molothrus cowbirds.
This bird is regarded as of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
YOU CAN WATCH THIS BIRD RIGHT HERE IN THE VIDEO BELOW:
