Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Another Pair of Backyard Visitors

Scarlet Tanagers (Piranga olivacea).  They showed up a little after noon, hung around the trees in the back lot, never visited the feeders and left after 15 minutes of so.  I'd sure like a better chance to get a photo; these were taken a pretty long ways away.  The brightness of the red in the males is just incredible.  It makes the Cardinals look positively dull.


In spring and summer, adult males are an unmistakable, brilliant red with black wings and tails. Females and fall immatures are olive-yellow with darker olive wings and tails. After breeding, adult males molt to female-like plumage, but with black wings and tail.

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