05.10.26: Scarlet Tanager

‍In all my years of wildlife photography I have seen, at most, six male Scarlet Tanagers and managed to photograph three. The male tanagers are described by many wildlife websites as both blindingly beautiful and frustratingly hard to find. 

‍I agree with both points.

‍The male Scarlet Tanagers have blood-red bodies with jet-black wings and tails. The red is so bright that a male Scarlet Tanager makes the male Northern Cardinal look ordinary.  The bird  is impossible to miss … if you can find one. 

‍And that’s the problem.

‍Tanagers typically stay high in forest canopies, well above eye level and surrounded by leaves. You may catch a quick flash of red, but then it’s gone.

‍It’s not the most photo friendly bird.

‍I attribute this photo of a male tanager more to luck than to skill, kind of a right-place-right-time event. 

‍I was on a photo hike on a spring morning north of Columbus, Ohio, seeing mostly a variety of sparrows, some Red-winged Blackbirds and an occasional Northern Cardinal, when I saw a flash of deep red in my peripheral vision. I expected to see another male Northern Cardinal, but realized immediately the red was too red and thought “tanager.” I turned quickly as a male tanager landed on a branch just above eye level. I grabbed a quick series of shots before the bird flew to the top of a nearby tree.

‍I admit it’s not the best of my bird photos. I would have preferred the tanager turn a bit in my direction so I could get more of a profile shot and it would have been nice to have better lighting. But it’s one of the few times I’ve pointed a camera at a male tanager, it’s in focus, and it’s unobstructed. So I’m happy.

‍Male Scarlet Tanagers are blood red during spring and summer. After breeding season, adult males molt to plumage more similar to female and immature Scarlet Tanagers: olive-yellow bodies with black wings and tails while females and immatures have darker olive wings and tails.