Sunday, May 20, 2012

summer arrives



Summer tanager! This is one bird well named. The only species in North America that is entirely RED—the color of fire engines, Santa Claus, valentines, cinnamon Red Hots—and, indeed, they are here in the summer.

In my state, they're more common in the western half but some nesting does occur in East Tennessee. Mostly in open woodlands of varying types.

Last week, they were in the oaks and hickories around my house. They're call is very similar to the scarlet tanager but to my ear, louder and harsher, usually including one phase that sounds like "peanut butter."

And I love peanut butter. So what's not to like about this bird?

Here's another wonderful Lang Elliott video. The first two scenes are mostly the intense agitated "pik-i-tuk-i-tuk" calls. But hang in there. The third scene has the song with the "peanut butter" phrase:








2 comments:

Dorothy said...

I've seen this beautiful bird twice, last year and this year, both times in East MS while we were watching and waiting for Eagles. Thanks for posting the video of their song! I like peanut butter, too;-)

A Colorful World said...

Wonderful video! Thank you for posting it. I saw and photographed a Vermillion Flycatcher here in Tucson about a year ago (which is red and black, of course) and had posted it as a Scarlet Tanager. I only learned this year that Scarlet Tanagers don't visit us in Tucson. :-)