Blue-grey Tanager Tangara episcopus
(aka Thraupis episcopus)
Blue-grey Tanager, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador

The Blue-grey Tanager is the northern and western replacement of the Sayaca Tanager T. sayaca to which it is very similar. Indeed, they are so similar that a case could be made for lumping them together, however their voices are different.

Blue-grey Tanager, Palmarí, near Tabatinga, Amazonas, Brazil, September 2003 - click for larger image There are 14 subspecies which tend to have different shades of blue to white on the shoulders. The first photo is of a bird at Caxiuanã, Pará so is probably the nominate subspecies, T. e. episcopus. Here we can see that the shoulder is almost white and the wings are noticeably blue while the rest of the bird is indeed blue-grey.
Blue-grey Tanager, Montazuma, Tatama, Risaralda, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image The second photo was taken in Brazil just south of the Amazon and just across from the Peruvian border so it is probably T. e. coelestis and shows a very large white shoulder patch and wing-bar.

Blue-grey Tanager, Montazuma, Tatama, Risaralda, Colombia, April 2012 - click for larger image Photos 3 and 4 were taken on the western cordillera of the Colombian Andes and is the sub-species T. e. cana showing no white on the wing coverts.

Photo 5 was taken in San Martin, Peru and Photo 6 in Napo, Ecuador

Blue-grey Tanager, Tarapato, San Martin, Peru, September 2018 - click for larger image

Its range stretches from southern Mexico to south of the Amazon river. See the distribution map at xeno-canto. It is found in a variety of habitats from forest borders to gardens and it eats on both fruit and insects. You can see an insect being hunted in photo 5.

Blue-grey Tanager, Wildsumaco Lodge, Napo, Ecuador, November 2019 - click for larger image

Previous Page Back to Index Next Page

If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page.
Fatbirder's Top 1000 Birding Websites