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Blue-grey Tanager

Thraupis episcopus

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernFruitForestCup nestSmall · 35 g
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 1
Photo: Stephen Lewis · CC0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 2
Photo: Sebastian Serna Muñoz · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 3
Photo: datadan · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 4
Photo: yongestation · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 5
Photo: Anna Hess · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 6
Photo: Anna Hess · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 7
Photo: yongestation · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 8
Photo: Lucas Illanes · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 9
Photo: Lucas Illanes · CC BY 4.0
Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus), photo 10
Photo: marmottled · CC BY 4.0

What the Blue-grey Tanager sounds like

Sonogram of the Blue-grey Tanager: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Gean Carlo Valdés · Song · Islas secas, Panama · CC0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Blue-grey Tanager: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Gean Carlo Valdés · Call · Islas secas, Panama · CC0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Blue-grey Tanager: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Gean Carlo Valdés · Call, song · Islas secas, Panama · CC0 · via xeno-canto

ID tip

The blue-gray tanager is 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) long and weighs 30–40 g (1.1–1.4 oz). Adults have a light bluish head and underparts, with darker blue upperparts and a shoulder patch colored a different shade 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.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Blue-grey Tanager

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Blue-grey Tanager

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 18 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Colombia Costa Rica Panama Ecuador Venezuela Peru Belize Mexico Guatemala Nicaragua Honduras Brazil Trinidad & Tobago El Salvador Guyana French Guiana Suriname Bolivia

Recorded as a rare visitor in United States.

About the Blue-grey Tanager

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 (Peru) and Florida. On Trinidad and Tobago, this bird is called blue jean.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum) Palm TanagerThraupis palmarumAdult palm tanagers are 19 cm (7.5 in) long and weigh 36 g (1.3 oz). Sayaca Tanager (Thraupis sayaca) Sayaca TanagerThraupis sayacaThe sayaca tanager is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers. Yellow-winged Tanager (Thraupis abbas) Yellow-winged TanagerThraupis abbasThe yellow-winged tanager is a neotropical member of the tanager family.

Side by side: Bananaquit vs Blue-grey Tanager · Blue-grey Tanager vs Palm Tanager

Watch the Blue-grey Tanager on live cams

Panama Fruit Feeder CamEl Valle de Antón, Panama · Cornell Lab Bird Cams / Canopy Lodge
BirdSouls Colombia Feeder CamColombia · BirdSouls / PixCams

Browse all 118 bird cams worldwide, live and seasonal, by region and species.

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