Friday, May 1, 2009

Summer Tanager

I am not a bird expert. My knowledge is very limited, but I do appreciate and enjoy watching birds. This week a new bird showed up at work. Jennifer, a coworker was sure that it was quite rare in our area. That night she got out her bird book and confirmed her first thought.

It is a first spring male Summer Tanager. They rarely come this far north but do venture into the southern parts of Iowa. I promised to bring my camera to see if we could catch a shot of the bird. These were taken through a window and I am obviously looking down on the bird. He was not willing to pose in the branches so that I could get a better shot, but I was glad to be able to catch his color as he foraged through the sunflower seeds that had dropped to the ground under one of the bird feeders. Maybe I will become a real birdwatcher someday.

1 comment:

Dennis Rockhill said...

I live in Orange City, IA, NW corner of the state and we had a Summer Tanager visit our back yard today, a cold wet Sunday in May.

I would love to post a picture of it, but don't know how!

hillrockra