It might be the most widely distributed and common species of tanager. But it’s still a very handsome bird. At almost any location between southeastern Mexico and central South America, it’s a familiar presence at forest edges, in second-growth forests and along roads and rivers. It can even be found in urban parks and gardens.…
This species is another of nine members of the genus Ramphocelus, a cousin of last week’s Crimson-backed Tanager. This species is endemic to upper Amazonia and is rarely found far from water, for example. in várzea forest or oxbow lakes. It is usually found in groups, which generally keep reasonably low in the vegetation, and the species as…
Not all of the tanagers are yellow and blue. This is the Crimson-backed Tanager, a species native to northwestern South America and Panama. It’s sexually dichromatic; the males have a slightly swollen, white lower mandible, shown here. While the species is not well studied, it appears to adapt reasonably well to human alteration of the…
The day ended with one of the severest mountain thunderstorms WC has experienced. WC is not shy about driving in marginal weather, but this storm forced WC to pull off the road three separate times. At one point, there was 1-2 inches of marble-sized hail on the surface of U.S. 20, and it was a…
It was a rainy, dreary day in Camas Prairie this past Wednesday. But despite the rains, birds were active. And WC had a chance to watch an interesting interaction between a Swainson’s Hawk and a Short-eared Owl. Now a Swainson’s is a pretty big bird, with a length of about 21 inches and a wingspan…
We’re just beginning to work through tanagers. This is one of those species that makes your eyes water when you see it in good light in your binoculars. Golden yellow with blue in the wings and a black auricular patch, the bird seems to glow in sunlight. There are at least nine subspecies, and considerable…
There are a lot of challenges involved in managing 170,000-plus nature photos. WC has written about the hard decisions of which to keep on review. Today we’ll take a look at reasons to keep a bad photo. We’ll start with an easy oe. Here’s a pretty bad photo of an Opal-crowned Tanager. The tanager is…
