Blue-grey Tanager

Sightings
Blue-grey Tanager was seen several times each day in the area of the feeders at the Asa Wright Centre.

Species
Blue-grey Tanager Thraupis episcopus breeds in woodland, cultivated areas and gardens. It is mainly a fruit eater but will also take some nectar and insects. It is a restless, noisy but confiding species, usually found in pairs, but sometimes small groups. It thrives around human habitation and will take some cultivated fruit like papayas.

Status and distribution
It is a species of least concern with an unknown but stable population in its enormous range of 13 million square kilometres in central and south America. Its range is from Mexico south to north-east Bolivia and northern Brazil, all of the Amazon Basin, except the very south. It is a common and widespread resident on both Trinidad and Tobago. There are fourteen subspecies of which T. e. nesophila is found from eastern Colombia to eastern Venezuela and on Trinidad, and T. e. berlepschi is endemic to Tobago. The Tobago subspecies is brighter and a richer blue on the wing coverts and the rump than that on Trinidad. On Trinidad and Tobago, this bird is called blue jean.

References
Asa Wright Centre; BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 220

Photograph
1/250th of a second, f5.6 and ISO 1000.