Large for his species he is covered head to tail in a beautiful mix of azure-blue, and olive green!
Meet the Blue-capped Tanager
“Sporothraupis cyanocephala / Azulejo montañero / Blue-capped Tanager” by felixú is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
The blue-capped tanager (Sporathraupis cyanocephala), is a species of bird in the tanager Thraupidae family. Wearing a blue crown and nape with olive-yellow upper parts and tail, these birds also have a dusky mask through the eye. Their throat and other underparts are gray.
Photo Courtesy of Fernando Flores – Uploaded by snowmanradio / CC BY-SA 2.0
The tibial area, vent, and under tail coverts are yellow.
Both sexes look very similar and are quite difficult to tell apart.
“Sporothraupis cyanocephala / Azulejo montañero / Blue-capped Tanager” by felixú is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
These birds are endemic to and found in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Sporothraupis cyanocephala / Azulejo montañero / Blue-capped Tanager” by felixú is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Blue-capped tanagers can be found in humid to wet cloud forests, as well as scrub, broken-canopy and secondary forests on the eastern slopes of the northern Andes.
“Blue-capped Tanager | Azulejo montañero (Thraupis cyanocephala)” by ferjflores is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Blue-capped tanager dines mainly on fruit but has also been known to make aerial sallies to catch insects on the wing.
“Thraupis cyanocephala / Azulejo montañero / Blue-capped Tanager” by felixú is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
There is little information on the breeding process of these birds. What is known is that they breed between June and October, building a cup-shaped nest made out of stems, fibers, moss, and bark about eight meters above the ground.
Félix Uribe from Rionegro, Antioquia, Colombia is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Due to this bird’s large range, it is considered to be of Least Concern on the IUCN list.
“Sporothraupis cyanocephala / Azulejo montañero / Blue-capped Tanager” by felixú is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Watch this bird right here in the video below:
