Azure-shouldered Tanagers

The lodge garden has been visited by a group of a dozen Azure-shouldered Tanagers (Thraupis cyanoptera) daily rejoicing at the bananas offered on the feeders.

Azure-shouldered Tanager
Azure-shouldered Tanager (© Nicholas Locke)

The Azure-shouldered Tanager is an endemic species to the high altitude Atlantic Forest of Rio and Espirito Santo state.   Adele, REGUA’s bird guide has noticed that it visits the feeders regularly in the Brazilian winter.    The intense cobalt blue on its epaulettes is the distinguishing feature but they have a gregarious nature that is not so characteristic to its cousin the more common Sayaca Tanager.