The Blue-Gray Tanager is truly a beautiful bird with its delicate coat of outstanding powder blue. Its scientific name is Thraupis episcopus and it is approximately 18 cm in length and weighs around 35 grams. The adult birds have a pale-gray head with darker upper parts and pale blue-gray underneath. Not only that, but they also have a shoulder patch which is a darker shade of blue. Although both sexes are very similar, immature birds appear duller when compared to their adult counterparts.
This bird’s range extends from Mexico down south to northeast Bolivia and northern Brazil, throughout the Amazon Basin, except for the far south. It has also been introduced to Peru. The 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.
When it comes to their diet, 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.
Breeding-wise, these birds like to breed in open woodland, cultivated areas, and gardens. They usually lay one to three, usually two, dark-marked whitish to grey-green eggs within a deep cup-shaped nest in a high tree fork or building crevice. The female solely incubates the eggs for around 14 days, and it takes another 17 days for the young to fledge. Unfortunately, their nests are sometimes parasitized by Molothrus cowbirds.
On the IUCN Red List, this bird is regarded as of Least Concern. So, if you ever want to witness the beauty of the Blue-Gray Tanager, you can watch it in the video below.