Blue-gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) - Birds of the Guyanas 22

The Blue-grey Tanager is a very common blue bird that can be seen in almost every garden in Suriname. They live in small groups in open terrain or at the forest edge. You'll find them less in the interior with closed canopy forest. It loves to eat fruit like mango, banana and papaya but it also forages on insects.

In the background on the picture above you see a Palm Tanager. The two birds are very closely related and are often found together. They are so strongly related that sometimes they even interbreed. The bird in the next picture is most likely such a hybrid.

The Blue-grey Tanager breeds the whole year round and its clutch is 1-3 blueish green eggs that the female lays in a cup shaped nest in a high tree fork or in holes of dead trees and crevices in buildings. The female incubates the eggs that hatch after 14 days. The chicks fledge after 17 days.

The white patch on its wing is not so developed on this bird in the picture above. It's most likely a young adult. Both sexes look similar but the immature birds are duller in their plumage.

These birds don't really sing, they make a lot of twittering noises instead combined with 'tsee' and 'tsuup' calls. The blue-gray tanager is 16–18 cm long and weighs 30–40 g.

In the picture above it caught an insect, sometimes you see them flying into the air to catch them like a flycatcher.

Thanks for visiting my blog and happy birding.