COBirders,
Thanks to a phone call from Melissa Walker who isn’t on this listserve, I learned about an orange variant, see page 463 in Big Sibley, male Scarlet Tanager. It has an orange body with blackish wings (has a few orange feathers on epaulets as shown in Sibley). The orange bird (often seemingly tame) stands out amongst the mostly green foliage. The most interesting aspect of the observation was that it was observed by Bryan Patrick and I feeding at least one offspring. The bird I saw being fed had two light colored wingbars so I am guessing that the male Scarlet Tanager bred with a female Western Tanager which I did not see. At Starsmore Discovery Center (Colorado Springs, El Paso County) at the mouth of North Cheyenne Canyon, turn and go up the canyon keeping (Starsmore) on your left as you drive upstream. (Don’t go to South Cheyenne Canyon and Seven Falls about a mile away) After about a ½ mile drive you will see a big green water storage tank on the hill above you on the right. In just a few hundred feet there will be a free parking area on the right. Park and walk on the road upstream until you come to a path that will take you to a footbridge on the left that has short stone walls (couple hundred yards from parking area). The tanager was seen on both sides of the road and on both sides of the small stream and almost always very low in bushes in the area of the bridge. If you see tall Mountain Ashes in the streambed with lots of orange-colored fruits you need to look mostly upstream from there. Lots of traffic on this narrow road which goes up to Helen Hunt Falls. PI along the road shoulder in spots too. Bill Maynard Colorado Springs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
