Backyard Birder: Summer Tanager in Winter!

Tara Tanaka was recently awarded the prestigious title of "Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year" and we are delighted that she has joined our backyard birder crew. Tara lives in Tallahassee and her backyard is a beautiful swamp! She'll be posting her amazing pictures of birds & wildlife that visit her yard for us to enjoy.

For the second year in a row this Summer Tanager visited our yard.  We’d seen him around the yard about a week before, but he first appeared at our water feature on January 26^th.  He was a regular visitor there until a few days ago.   We hope to see him again next year.  All of the photos are digiscoped (using a camera mounted on a spotting scope), which allowed me to zoom in on last year’s and this year’s photos, checking the folds around both eyes and the unique shape of his bill, confirming that it was the same bird.

by Tara Tanaka

Like the Baltimore Oriole most Summer Tanagers leave the United States for the winter, but a few remain behind and utilize backyard feeding stations when natural food is hard to come by. Summer Tanagers particularly like to feed on high energy products, like suet, during the winter.