Summer Tanager

The male Summer Tanager. A truly remarkable bird that was a true pleasure to find and one of my most prized. I remember seeing this beauty like it was yesterday. It was the day after my birthday, June 15th 2013, a rather warm mid June day without a cloud in the sky. I had to do some convincing but I tempted Susanne to go the the Lanark Nature Center located just outside of Montgomery. We already spotted a few nice species of birds, but nothing out of the ordinary. But we did stumble upon two rat snakes along our hike through the woods. One was 3 foot and nearly made me poop my pants since we were no further than 10 feet from the beast. But after that ordeal we made it to a clearing in the heavily wooded area were a small pond was baking int he sun. As we trans-versed the bridge over the water way we spotted a red bird in the tree line across the way. We both thought it was a northern cardinal but something deep inside me gave me the urge to further investigate this natural wonder. A few photos later revealed that we were onto something special and rare! Susanne and I spend the next 30 minutes listening to this marvel sing its sweet song perched about 30 feet above our heads. My camera took this picture without me even knowing it, it just happened.


The Summer Tanager is a bright red bird as you can see. A yellow beak and slight black around the wings to create it's distinctive plumage. The beauty of this bird is that is only here in the summer, during the winter it makes its long journey to that foreign land of central america. The chart below shows exactly it's migratory patterns. The Summer Tanager is considered a bee and wasp specialist. It usually catches a bee in flight and then kills it by beating it against a branch. Before eating the bee, the tanager removes the stinger by rubbing it on a branch. The tanager eats bee and wasp larvae too. It first catches the adult insects and then perches near the nest to tear it open and get the grubs.