Category Archives: Friday’s Feathered Friends

Friday's Feathered Friends

~Today’s Feathered Friend-Color Me a Rosy Red~

May 21, 2014 Sheila 13 Comments

A Haiku

~

large bright yellow bill

color me a rosy red

my name, Tanager

~

Today’s Feathered Friend:

Summer Tanager

Male:

`Seven and three-quarters inches in length

`Bright rosy red overall – all year

`Large yellowish bill (more yellow during breeding season)

`Darker red wings and tail

Female:

`Yellowish below, slightly darker above

`Yellowish bill

`Olive-green upper parts

`Orange-yellow under parts

Facts:

`Tanager is from language of Tupi Indians of Amazon region, who called these brightly colored tree-drelling birds tangaras

`Most common North American tanager in its range – eastern and southern United States

`Song is Robin like and is a repeated Pick-a-Tuck

`Eats mostly bees and wasps and known to catch them right out of the air

`Habitat: Pine Oak woods, willows and cottonwoods, along streams

`Likes peanut butter and cornmeal from your feeder

~Neotropical migrant

~Vulnerable to habitat loss and forest fragmentation

`Host to Cowbirds, uncommon {yeah}

`Usually monogamous and many appear to remain in pairs all year

`Information taken from several sources including: Stokes Field Guide to Birds and Smithsonian Handbook Birds of North America, NGS Birds of North America

A beautiful Summer Tanager — A beautiful male Summer Tanager

While camping at South Llano State Park in April of 2014, I captured these photos while sitting in a bird blind. It was a thrill to see this beautiful Summer Tanager up close. I also saw the female, but didn’t manage to capture her with my camera. She was pretty shy!

“The Field Sparrow told me about this water slide”

He was right: "This is fun!" — “He was right this is fun!”

~

Added to my Birding Life List in April, 2007

at Dead Horse Ranch State Park

Cottonwood, Arizona

~

My Birding Life List – 366

Links:

Paying-Ready-Attention (Wild Bird Wednesday)

http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com

Prairie Birder (Feathers on Friday)

http://prairiebirder.wordpress.com

Friday's Feathered Friends, On The Road

~Friday’s Feathered Friend – Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher~

May 15, 2014 Sheila 18 Comments

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

~

Added to my Birding Life List on December 20, 2011

Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Hobe Sound, Florida

~

I linked to PrairieBirder: http://PrairieBirder.Wordpress.com

Such a tiny little bird, only 4.25 inches! It looks like a very small mockingbird.

`Male has bluish-gray upper parts and the female is more gray

`White eye ring

`Long black tail with white outer feathers

`Black bill

`Black legs

Lovely little bird (white eye ring) — The white eye ring gives this lovely little bird big facial expressions

The Blue-gray gnatcatcher feed entirely on insects, which it pursues actively through the foliage of tall trees. Catches insects in flight. May hover briefly above food before taking it in its bill.

Its nest is interesting, a small cup made up of plant fibers, down and decorated on the outside with bits of lichen. This lovely little bird can be spotted in woodlands, thickets and chaparral.

When breeding it is monogamous and is a solitary nester. Its eggs are incubated 13 days by both sexes, stays in nest for 10-12 days and fed by both sexes. They usually will have one brood per year maybe two in the far south.

**information above taken from Smithsonian handbooks, National Geographic Society, Birds of North America**

Breeding male I believe, bacause of black line on sides of crown.

Conservation: neotropical migrant. Common victim of cowbird parasitism

Population: common, increasing with range expanding northeasterly

Neotropical Migrant – (noun) A bird that spends the summer in its breeding range in North America but migrates to Central or South America for its nonbreeding range in winter. The winter range may also include the Caribbean, and the general dividing line between breeding and nonbreeding ranges is the Tropic of Cancer at 23 degrees north latitude, though the entire range does not need to be either north or south of that division for the bird to be considered a neotropical migrant.

More than 200 species of birds are considered neotropical migrants, including at least a few species in most bird families. Many warblers,hummingbirds and shorebirds are neotropical migratory birds, as are some hawks and many other songbirds.

The exact distance and route of migration between breeding and nonbreeding ranges varies for each species, and migration time between the separate ranges may take anywhere from just a few weeks to several months. It is essential to conserve habitat not only in the birds’ different ranges, but also along principle migratory flyways so birds will have sufficient feeding and resting areas to successfully complete their journeys. (taken from the web, written by Melissa Mayntz.