Blue-gray tanager

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Blue-gray tanager
T. e. cana
in Darién National Park (Panama)

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Thraupis
Species:
T. episcopus
Binomial name
Thraupis episcopus
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms
  • Loxia virens Linnaeus, 1766
  • Tanagra episcopus Linnaeus, 1766
  • Tangara episcopus[2] (Linnaeus, 1766)

The blue-gray tanager (Thraupis episcopus) is a medium-sized

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

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist

binomial name Tanagra episcopus and cited Brisson's work.[5] The specific name episcopus is Latin for "bishop".[6] The current genus Thraupis was introduced by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1826.[7]

There are 14 recognized

endemic to Tobago) is a brighter and darker blue on the rump and shoulder, T. e. neosophilus with a violet shoulder patch occurs in northern Venezuela, Trinidad, eastern Colombia and the far north of Brazil, T. e. mediana of the southern Amazon
basin has a white wing patch, and T. e. cana in the northern Amazon has blue shoulders.

Description

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 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.

Breeding and 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, insects and other arthropods.[9][10] 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 (Carica papaya).

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.

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 (also in Colombia), did not have blood parasites.[11][12]

Agricultural ecology

T. episcopus prospers in some areas cleared by humans

primary forest.[13]

T. episcopus is commonly infected with Blastocystis parasites, specifically Subtype 6 (ST6) which was exclusive to birds in that area.[16] ST6 was never found in cows in the area, but it was unassessed whether T. episcopus shares ST6 with nearby domesticated bird flocks.[16]

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.[1]

Sub species

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22722527A167302828.en
    . Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b Morlan, Joseph (2019-08-20). "Blue-gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus caerulea)". City College of San Francisco FOG. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  3. ^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 3. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 40–41, Plate 1 fig 2. The two stars (**) at the start of the paragraph indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
  4. ^
    hdl:2246/678
    .
  5. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1766). Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (12th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 316.
  6. ^ Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  7. ^ Boie, Friedrich (1826). "Generalübersicht". Isis von Oken (in German). Col 974.
  8. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Tanagers and allies". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  9. ^ a b "Blue-Gray Tanager Fact Sheet". Lincoln Park Zoo.
  10. ^ https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/bugtan/cur/introduction
  11. ^ Basto, Natalia; Rodríguez, Oscar A.; Marinkelle, Cornelis J.; Gutierrez, Rafael; Matta, Nubia Estela (2006). "Haematozoa in birds from la Macarena National Natural Park (Colombia)" (PDF). Caldasia (in English and Spanish). 28 (2): 371–377.
  12. S2CID 87907947
    .
  13. ^
    S2CID 86457135
    .
  14. ^
    ISSN 0888-8892
    .
  15. ^
    ISSN 1461-023X
    .
  16. ^
    PMID 23886615
    .

Further reading

  • Skutch, Alexander F. (1954). "Blue tanager" (PDF). Life Histories of Central American Birds. Pacific Coast Avifauna, Number 31. Berkeley, California: Cooper Ornithological Society. pp. 189–199.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thraupis episcopus.
Wikispecies has information related to Thraupis episcopus.
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