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GALLERIES > BIRDS > EMBERIZOIDAE > THRAUPIDAE > TURQUOISE TANAGER [Tangara mexicana]


Turquoise Tanager Picture
 
 

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SPECIES INFO

The Turquoise Tanager, Tangara mexicana, is a medium-sized passerine bird. This tanager is a resident breeder from Trinidad, Colombia and Venezuela south to Bolivia and much of Brazil. It is restricted to areas with humid forest, with its primary distribution being the Amazon, while a disjunct population occurs in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil. The latter population is sometimes considered a separate species, the White-bellied Tanager, Tangara brasiliensis.

It occurs in forest, woodland and cultivation. The bulky cup nest is built in a tree or shrub, and the female incubates three brown-blotched grey-green eggs.

Adult Turquoise Tanagers are 14cm long and weigh 20g. They are long-tailed and with a dark stout pointed bill. The adult is mainly dark blue and black, with turquoise edging to the primaries. Most races have yellow lower underparts, but this is paler, more cream, in the nominate subspecies found in north-eastern South America. The Trinidadian race, T. m. vieiloti, has a darker blue head and breast and more vividly yellow underparts than the mainland taxa. The taxon brasiliensis differ more conspicuously, it having a white belly and a blue edging to the primaries.

These are social birds usually found in groups. They eat a wide variety of fruit and also take insects, often gleaned from twigs.

The Turquoise Tanager's song is a fast squeaky chatter tic-tic-tic-tic-tic.





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