It’s been a good spring for local birders. Leah Leffler and I both had Indigo Buntings pay us a visit. In fact, she still has them. I also had a flock of Cedar Waxwings stop by for a birdbath and Sue Overton saw a rare Blue Grosbeak at her feeder in Waynesboro. Another bird-watching friend, Sherman Shifflett recently saw a Scarlet Tanager perched in a nearby pine tree beside his house in Louisa. Sherman said it was only the second Tanager he has seen at his place in the 41 years he’s lived there.
Sherman said that before he saw the beautiful Scarlet Tanager he heard a bird sound he was not familiar with. Then the bird flew back across the road to his place and into a magnolia tree.
“I didn’t see him after that,” Sherman said. “Maybe with his singing, he was trying to attract a mate or possibly he was trying to convince the old lady to hurry up, there was more traveling to do. I would certainly love to have him stay.”
Scarlet Tanagers are migratory birds, slightly smaller than a cardinal. The Audubon Society says that in spring and summer, adult males are an unmistakable, brilliant red with black wings and tails. Females and fall immature birds are olive-yellow with darker olive wings and tails. After breeding, adult males molt to female-like plumage, but retain the black wings and tail.
Scarlet Tanagers eat primarily insects in the summer, but will snack on fruits and seeds during migration and on their wintering grounds in South America in tropical forests east of the Andes.
Scarlet Tanagers breed in deciduous and mixed deciduous-evergreen forests in eastern North America. During migration, they move through a broader variety of forest and shrubby habitats, as well as backyards.
They sing a burry, rambling song and give a distinctive and harsh “chick-burr” call.
The males are so brilliantly colored that they appear out of place in their preferred woodland habitat. Be on the lookout. Maybe a flock will pass by your back yard someday.