Although it seems to me that we have fewer neotropical migrants in our woods this spring than we\u2019ve had in the past, it seems to be a good year for Scarlet Tanagers here. I\u2019ve caught only one brief glimpse of the male\u2019s brilliant red and black plumage, and have not seen a female at all, but their songs and calls are so distinctive and familiar that they\u2019ve been one of the most characteristic parts of the scene around our house through all of May and into early June. <\/p>\n
At least one, and maybe a pair, continues to sing and call in the woods near the creek, and also \u2013 this year for the first time \u2013 a Scarlet Tanager has been singing every day from a different direction, across the street from our house, along the edge of the woods that slope down to a different creek there. It\u2019s one of the earliest singers every morning, and it seems to make its way along a path through these trees repeatedly throughout the morning. It sings most often from the highest parts of the trees \u2013 sweet gums and water oaks, mostly \u2013 but stays hidden in the dense green leaves.<\/p>\n
In the evenings, it sings from a large, magnificent red oak tree down the street and toward the west, on the edge of the woods there. I once saw it singing there in the early morning, but in the evenings, it sings late, and the tree is silhouetted against the orange light of the horizon after the sun has gone down.<\/p>\n
Except for that one time, I haven\u2019t been able to see the bird singing, but I also hear the crisp CHIK-brrr calls<\/span>. I don\u2019t know for sure if I\u2019m hearing one bird or two. It may be just a male, or a pair singing and calling back and forth to each other. While the Scarlet Tanager\u2019s song is not particularly pretty, its call is alluring and one of my favorite sounds in the summer woods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although it seems to me that we have fewer neotropical migrants in our woods this spring than we\u2019ve had in the past, it seems to be a good year for Scarlet Tanagers here. I\u2019ve caught only one brief glimpse of the male\u2019s brilliant red and black plumage, and have not seen a female at all, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}