Abstract
lm up at 4:30 a.m., dragging around my cup of coffee, sampling what will become breakfast for my Blue-grey tanagers. Well worth the effort. These beautiful birds in shades of subtle blues attracted me to my first pair in November 2012. I knew that just keeping them would never satisfy me. I wanted to learn to reproduce them successfully.
I have spent at least 35 years breeding and studying exotic birds, currently caring for an estimated 400 birds and 35 different species. My primary field of study and research has focused on avian nutrition, and the nutritional composition of bird foods. Holding numerous wildlife certifications has given me a very unique opportunity of working closely with a wide variety of native song and water birds.
Despite my busy schedule, I am still regularly consulted for my expertise in avian nutrition and rehabilitation techniques, having developed an extensive network of professional relationships.
I live in the Texas Hill Country with Don, my husband, dogs, goats, tortoises, bunnies, and other numerous exotic and domestic birds, while also working in Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas.
The Blue-grey tanager is a medium sized tanager measuring a little over 7 inches (18 centimeters), with a pale sky-blue on the head and chest, dark blue body, a shade darker blue tail, light blue wings with dark blue on the wing edges. While both sexes are very similar in appearance, the color of the female is slightly greyer than that of the male. The color difference is hard to decipher unless several adults are together. Juveniles lack the bright colors of the adults. Their voices are a high and pleasant twittering.
The Blue-grey tanager is a tanager from the family Thrapuidae. Its Latin name is Thraupis episcopus. It originates in South America and naturally occurs in southern Mexico to northeast Bolivia. It also occurs in the Amazon and northern Brazil. It is sometimes called Blue Jean on Trinidad and Tobago. There are 13 subspecies which tend to have different shades of blue to white on the shoulders. The breeding habitat is open woodland, cultivated areas and gardens. The Blue-grey tanager lives mainly on fruit, but will also take some nectar and insects.
The plan was to put my new tanagers in a planted flight where I could watch them chase insects and give them a sense of security. I thought that would be important to get them to breed. It was now November, and it can get very cold here in central Texas, so I brought the pair inside my bird room for the winter, thinking that in the spring they would return to the outside flight.
The pair was placed by themselves in a cage measuring 4'x 18'x4' (122 cmx46 cmx 122 cm) on a shelf. The top of the cage was about 7 feet (213 cm) off the floor. The room that housed them has windows that line the wall on two sides with two large skylights. During the day the room is pretty bright .If the sun shines, it shines part of the day in their cage. They also have a small full-spectrum light mounted on top of the cage which is left on 24 hours a day. When the birds are not nesting they spend a lot of time under the light sunbathing. The room varies in temperatures from 70°F (24°C) during the day to 50°F (10°C) at night.
The cage was filled with plastic plants and dried bamboo stalks. I also have a few live plants hanging on the outside of the cage.