Blue-gray tanager

Thraupis episcopus

The blue-gray tanager is a medium-sized South American songbird of the tanager family, Thraupidae. Its range is from Mexico south to northeast Bolivia and northern Brazil, all of the Amazon Basin, except the very south. It has been introduced to Lima. On Trinidad and Tobago, this bird is called blue jean.
Blue Gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) A Blue Gray Tanager on a mango tree. Animalia,Animals,Aves,Birds,Blue-gray tanager,Caribbean,Tanager,Thraupis episcopus,Trinidad and Tobago,blue gray tanager

Appearance

The blue-gray tanager is 16–18 cm long and weighs 30–40 g. Adults have a light bluish head and underparts, with darker blue upperparts and a shoulder patch colored a different hue of blue. The bill is short and quite thick. Sexes are similar, but the immature is much duller in plumage.

The song is a squeaky twittering, interspersed with "tseee" and "tsuup" call notes.
Blue-Gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) A Blue-Gray Tanager singing, although it looks as if it's screaming. I took this photo earlier this month while doing a balancing act on a small ledge near our patio area, in an effort to get a view of the bird through the dense leaves. Animalia,Animals,Aves,Birds,Blue Gray Tanager,Blue-gray tanager,Caribbean,Thraupis episcopus,Trinidad and Tobago

Status

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the blue-gray tanager is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) What a silly billy! My apologies. I previously inadvertently posted the wrong photo, but here IS one of the Blue-grey Tanagers I found on my last day in Costa Rica, when I was butterfly hunting. Lively, cheeky and fun to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RQlRtFGLug Blue-gray tanager,Costa Rica,Geotagged,Spring,Thraupis episcopus

Habitat

The breeding habitat is open woodland, cultivated areas and gardens. The blue-gray tanager lives mainly on fruit, but will also take some nectar and insects. This is a common, restless, noisy and confiding species, usually found in pairs, but sometimes small groups. It thrives around human habitation, and will take some cultivated fruit like papayas.

One to three, usually two, dark-marked whitish to gray-green eggs are laid in a deep cup nest in a high tree fork or building crevice. Incubation by the female is 14 days with another 17 to fledging. The nest is sometimes parasitised by "Molothrus" cowbirds.

Two birds studied in the Parque Nacional de La Macarena of Colombia were infected with microfilariae, an undetermined "Trypanosoma" species, and another blood parasite that could not be identified. Two other birds, examined near Turbo, did not have blood parasites.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.