Tangara mexicana
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The turquoise tanager (Tangara mexicana) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is a resident bird from Trinidad, much of Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela, and south to Bolivia. Despite its scientific name, it is not found in Mexico. It is restricted to areas with humid forest, with its primary distribution being the Amazon. It was formerly treated as being conspecific with the white-bellied tanager which is found in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil.
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. These are social birds usually found in groups. They eat a wide variety of fruit and also take insects and other arthropods, often gleaned from twigs.
The turquoise tanager was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 12th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tanagra mexicana. His description was principally based on Mathurin Jacques Brisson's Le tangara blue de Cayenne that he had described and illustrated in 1760. The type locality is Cayenne in French Guiana. The turquoise tanager... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 5 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 7 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Basel Zoo | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | |
| 4 | California Academy of Sciences | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Milwaukee County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Nuremberg Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 8 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 28 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 9 | Burgers' Ocean | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 10 | Royal Burgers' Zoo | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 11 | Memphis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Riverbanks Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Eindhoven Zoo | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 14 | Zoologischer Garten Halle | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 15 | OdySea Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 16 | National Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 18 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 12 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 19 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 14 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 20 | Tiergarten Am Tiergarten 6 in Nürnberg | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Turquoise Tanager sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 472 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 111th most-seen of the 533 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, April, June–August and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Turquoise Tanager in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against about 10% in February–March, May, September and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Turquoise Tanager sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Turquoise Tanager sightings, Yasuní National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Brazil, about 20%), Manu National Park (Peru, about 20%) and Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, about 20%).
Same genus: Tangara
The closest relatives of the Turquoise Tanager that you can see in Yasuní National Park (genus Tangara, Tangara Tanagers) are Opal-rumped Tanager (about 20%), Opal-crowned Tanager (about 20%) and Paradise Tanager (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Turquoise Tanager is recorded against all the birds logged in Yasuní National Park (472 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
