Scarlet Tanager

Early this morning under a clear, cloudless blue sky and bright sun, the air still felt wonderfully cool and pleasant, though the day would warm up fast into the 90s by noon. Birds were mostly rather quiet and reclusive already, as they have been for the past several days, but there were the sweet, cool coos of a Mourning Dove, the percussive call of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the soft pik-a-tuk of a Summer Tanager, the buzzy, rising notes of a Northern Parula, the whispery spee-spee calls of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, the long, summery trills of Chipping Sparrows, and the blurry warbles of an Eastern Bluebird. 

So even though the overall impression was of quiet, shaded suburban streets with not a bird in sight much of the time, somewhere in the trees and bushes and thickets much more was happening than I could see.

As I turned a corner to walk into the neighborhood next to our own, I was surprised to hear the emphatic song of a Scarlet Tanager, coming from some tall trees on the edge of a wooded area behind the houses. 

I was even more surprised to see it – sitting in clear view at the very top of the tallest oak around, a silky, gleaming red bird with black wings, framed in green leaves and shining in the morning sunlight. It looked almost unreal. And it sang and sang, and stayed in the same spot for several minutes before finally flying away into deeper woods.

A male Scarlet Tanager is one of our most dramatically colorful birds, a medium-size songbird that’s clear, bright red all over, except for ink-black wings and tail. Though it’s so flashy in appearance, it’s well known for being hard to spot because it most often stays high up in the canopy in a wooded area, hidden among the dense foliage of a tree like an oak. The female is much less flamboyant in appearance – a rather dusky lemon-yellow with darker wings and tail. 

A Scarlet Tanager’s song is not especially musical, but it is loud and distinctive, a rather harsh-sounding series of phrases similar to a robin’s though not as pretty. I think its call is even more fun to hear – a crisp, expressive chik-brrr! that laces through the trees like a whisper as one or two Scarlet Tanagers move, searching the branches and leaves for insects and other prey.

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