Participant Photo: Summer Tanager
Additional images:
When we first spotted this bird we assumed it was a Scarlet Tanager. But, the more I looked at it, I really began to doubt that it was a scarlet Tanager. I scoured the internet and sent photos to Laura Erickson asking her opinion. I thought it might be a Summer Tanager; the bill color & shape, wing color & size of the bird seemed to fit the Summer Tanager and she agreed with me. The thing is, I live in Minnesota, way out of the range of the Summer Tanager.
Categories: Other
Species: Scarlet Tanager Summer Tanager
Comments
One comment on “Participant Photo: Summer Tanager”
I had almost the same experience! I live in Minnesota, and I’m casting about on the internet to see if the summer tanager range has expanded North. My visitor has a red head, throat, and chest. Its other body feathers are grayish green, and its wing feathers are striped grey and light brown, like a house sparrow. Its body is about the size of an adult house sparrow, but longer. The beak is smaller than a juvenile cardinal’s, and it has no crest on its head. This is consistent with an expert’s description of a male summer tanager about one year old. (He said their markings vary a lot, and this is a possible pattern.)