Western Tanager

Description:

The Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana), is a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae).[2] The species's plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family. Adults have pale stout pointed bills, yellow underparts and light wing bars. Adult males have a bright red face and a yellow nape, shoulder, and rump, with black upper back, wings, and tail; in non-breeding plumage the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge. Females have a yellow head and are olive on the back, with dark wings and tail. The song of disconnected short phrases suggests an American Robin's but is hoarser and rather monotonous. The call is described as "pit-er-ick". Their breeding habitat is coniferous or mixed woods across western North America from the Mexico-U.S. border as far north as southern Alaska; thus they are the northernmost-breeding tanager. They build a flimsy cup nest on a horizontal tree branch, usually in a conifer. They lay four bluish-green eggs with brown spots. These birds migrate, wintering from central Mexico to Costa Rica. Some also winter in southern California.

Habitat:

The breeding range of the western tanager includes forests along the western coast of North America from southeastern Alaska south to northern Baja California. 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.[3][4][5] 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. Western tanagers do not typically occur in the Caribbean lowlands. They have been reported wintering further north and have been observed as far south as Panama.[3][4][5] Accidentals are rare to casual in the eastern United States. In addition to the plant communities listed above, western tanagers are reported from disturbed habitats. For instance, western tanagers were seen in an area of northwestern California that had been logged less than 5 years previously. Cutleaf burnweed (Erechtites glomerata) was characteristic of the youngest age class, while slightly older sites were composed predominantly of tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) with smaller amounts of snowbrush ceanothus (Ceanothus velutinus), whitebark raspberry (Rubus leucodermis), and Sierra gooseberry (Ribes roezlii).[7] In addition, western tanagers were captured along the Rio Grande in New Mexico during spring and fall migration in an agricultural area composed primarily of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and corn (Zea mays).[8] Western tanagers have also been observed in saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) communities [8] and in Russian-olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) vegetation.[8] In New Mexico, western tanagers were observed in nearly pure stands of saltcedar 10 to 23 feet (3–7 m) tall. Western tanagers were also observed in saltcedar communities during fall migration in along the Rio Grande.[8] Ten western tanagers were observed among 3 sites composed of Russian-olive in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. All sites were dominated by Russian-olive with cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) comprising a substantial portion of the understory. Along the Rio Grande western tanagers were most often captured during fall migration in vegetation with a Rio Grande cottonwood (Populus deltoides ssp. wislizenii) overstory and a moderate to dense Russian-olive understory.

Notes:

a female tanager vocalizing from grapevines. Perhaps defending nest site.