Turquoise Tanager (Tangara mexicana)
Turquoise Tanager, Linhares, Espírito Santo, Brazil, March 2004 - click for larger image Linhares, Espírito Santo, Brazil
March 2004

The Turquoise Tanager is distributed throughout the Amazon Basin and into the Guianas and Trinidad. There is a disjunct population in eastern Brazil from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro.
This photo is of the east Brazilian sub-species T. m. brasiliensis which is a pale, silvery blue with scruffy-looking dark spots on the throat and breast and white on the belly. Other sub-species are a darker blue and either pale or deep yellow on the underparts.

It is found on the borders or outside of the forest, usually in small groups and not in mixed flocks. It feeds mainly on fruit.
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