As Good As it Gets - Western Tanager

Our backyard butts up against about 3 acres of property that has a house at one end, a yard area, and the rest is left to nature. Sometimes that is a pain, when we have to beat back the encroaching ivy and blackberry vines, but mostly it is a blessing. Especially for the birds. I sat outside just now and sat quietly with my camera and just listened and watched all the backyard birds do their thing. The hummingbirds flit about, the crows squawk, the robins swoop in to the birdbath. Got a great capture of a robin. Saw the finches flitting and spotted an Evening Grosbeak at the suet feeder. But I was waiting for this. And I spotted him. Saw the female, too, but, alas, her mate is the colorful one. He went from limb to limb, went to the fence, went to the water fountain by the fence and I got him in the tree, with a fairly decent shot, considering I don't have the right equipment for bird photos. We have another fountain right outside the "office" window and I'll be darned, as soon as I came in to upload the images I took, there he was, right in that fountain. So, I got him through the window. It is a better, closer image of him, and this is as good as it gets for birds in my backyard. Saw a pheasant once, and a hawk came in close once or twice and sat on a branch, but this Western Tanager is the cream of the crop as far as I am concerned.


The Western Tanager, Piranga ludoviciana, is a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae).[1] The species's plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family.
Adults have pale stout pointed bills, yellow underparts and light wing bars. Adult males have a bright red face and a yellow nape, shoulder, and rump, with black upper back, wings, and tail; in non-breeding plumage the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge. Females have a yellow head and are olive on the back, with dark wings and tail.
The song of disconnected short phrases suggests an American Robin's but is hoarser and rather monotonous. The call is described as "pit-er-ick".
Their breeding habitat is coniferous or mixed woods across western North America from the Mexico-U.S. border as far north as southern Alaska; thus they are the northernmost-breeding tanager. They build a flimsy cup nest on a horizontal tree branch, usually in a conifer. They lay four bluish-green eggs with brown spots.
These birds migrate, wintering from central Mexico to Costa Rica. Some also winter in southern California.