Western tanager

Description:

Adult male in his breeding plumage. Medium size songbirds with stout bills.

Habitat:

Spotted in willow trees in a wetland habitat at the Green River Natural Resources Area. The breeding range of the western tanager includes forests along the western coast of North America from southeastern Alaska south to northern Baja California, Mexico. Western tanagers extend east to western Texas and north through central New Mexico, central Colorado, extreme northwest Nebraska, and areas of western South Dakota to southern Northwest Territories, Canada. The western tanager's wintering range stretches from central Costa Rica north through Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to southern Baja California Sur and extreme southeastern Sonora in western Mexico and to southern Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico.

Notes:

In late spring and early summer the Western Tanager feeds on insects, often like a flycatcher, from the high canopy. Later it feeds on berries and other small fruits.