Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Scarlet tanager


Wayne came by yesterday with a sad gift: he found this gorgeous bit of color dead on his patio. It had evidently hit a window on one of the upper floors of his condo building. This is the scarlet tanager, a bird we see once or twice a year here. You would think that a bird which is both common and so brilliantly colored would be easily spotted. But once the trees leaf out, this shy bird becomes very hard to find.

As I examined the dead bird I was amazed at the intensity of the red color: the red feathers look as if they had been crafted of red reflective metal.

2 comments:

Gloria said...

Today is May 22nd. I found the exact same sight outside today. A beautiful male scarlet tanager, very still on the ground.The large window above reflects several trees. I live in Chicago, IL
How sad to think so many birds die this way.

McWort said...

For one solution to this problem, look here:
http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2007/12/holiday-present-for-birds.html