Western Tanager

 

Western Tanager

Excitement pulsed through the Eastern Massachusetts birding community this week when a Western Tanager appeared at Halibut Point. Reports on eBird brought scores of folks to the Park for a chance to enjoy this vivid rarity, and perhaps to add it to their lifetime sighting list.

Surrounded by grapes

The tanager was seen reliably in the same spot over a four-day period, high in the canopy of a pear tree where the desiccated fruit of a grape vine provided good forage.

In the cedar tree

Alternatively it hunted insects in an adjacent cedar tree. It often made fluttery loops out to catch bugs on the fly.

Range map for the Western Tanager
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

We can only guess how this bird had strayed so far from its traditional range. Speculations on the subject occupied thoughtful conversation immediately after the initial delight at seeing a beautiful novelty.

The tanager and a goldfinch

One online source giving aids for identification of the species suggested a comparison with the American Goldfinch, which is similar in coloration but considerably smaller. Obligingly a goldfinch posed alongside the tanager in this picture.

Quite likely a juvenile male

Onlookers were curious about a fuller description of the bird. This photograph seems to show some characteristics of a male in winter eclipse plumage and some of a female, although the coloration is brighter than that expected for a female. Consensus settled on an immature male. For advanced birdwatchers the challenges of identification through each species' seasonal plumage changes and life histories adds a sporting element to the quest. 

A male Western Tanager in breeding plumage
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology website

Anyone seeking the full spectacle of this bird when it's feathers blaze for procreative privileges will have to reverse the travel of our migrant visitor and scout its western homeland in the spring.