The Story
The place
Caracolí Bird House, Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia. I photographed this Blue-gray Tanager here on September 15, 2025, at about 6:58 a.m.
eBird lists 94 species all-time at Caracolí Bird House (as of October 2026).
The shot
At Caracolí Bird House in Colombia’s Meta region, this Blue-gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) of the white-edged variant paused among the green stems, its soft blue-gray body and bright turquoise wings with clean white edges catching the light. This form of the Blue-gray Tanager is less frequently photographed and offers a quiet, refined beauty that stands apart from the more commonly seen birds of the same species. I used the Canon EOS R5 with the RF800mm F11 IS STM and Extender RF1.4x, at 1120 mm, 1/60 s, f/16, ISO 1600, −1/2 EV.
The bird
The Blue-gray Tanager (Thraupis episcopus) belongs to the family Thraupidae (Tanagers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2021), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List