General

Western Tanager: Medium-sized tanager with brilliant red head, bright yellow body and black back, wings, and tail. Wings have two bars: upper yellow, lower white. Female is olive-green above and yellow below with wing bars similar to male.

Range and Habitat

Western Tanager: Breeds from southern Alaska and Mackenzie southward and winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include open coniferous forests.

Breeding and Nesting

Western Tanager: Three to five brown marked, blue eggs are laid in a frail, shallow saucer nest woven from rootlets, weed stalks, and bark strips, and saddled on a horizontal branch of a Douglas fir, spruce, pine, or oak. Female incubates eggs for about 13 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Western Tanager: Eats insects and berries; forages in trees and shrubs, or catches insects in the air.

Readily Eats

Safflower, Apple Slices, Suet, Millet, Peanut Kernels, Fruit

Vocalization

Western Tanager: Song contains short fluty, but hoarse phrases rendered with a pause in between. Call is a dry "pit-r-ick."

Similar Species

Western Tanager: Flame-colored Tanager has dark bill, bolder white wing-bars, and darkly streaked back. Scarlet Tanager (female and juvenile) has olive-colored back and lacks wing-bars.