(Reprinted from the June 15, 2001 edition of The Suburban News)
It was unexpected, but a half-dozen times now a bright red scarlet tanager has been seen eating away at the suet in my yard.
The deep red, with jet-black, wing of the scarlet tanager usually graces only the very top limbs of giant oaks and pines. It makes its nest on a horizontal limb, fifty feet or more above the ground where it lays three to five pale greenish-blue eggs covered with many brown spots.
Its food consists largely of caterpillars, beetles and moths. With the number of gypsy moths showing up nightly on our window screens now; there must be plenty of natural food for our visiting male.
Only the male is colorful. We don’t know if that bright red plumage appears as beautiful to other birds as it does to us. I’m sure that gaudy grab must play a role in courtship as it is during courtship days it’s the brightest. The male’s best clothes will fade as the summer goes by. Come fall his feathers will molt and he will look worse for wear. He will turn a dull green above and have signs of yellow below. Wing and tail feathers will become tattered from brushing time and again against foliage. Messy feathers will drop out and new ones take their place. Nature is kind and makes sure when a left feather comes out, a matching one on the right comes out also to keep the birds aerodynamics balanced.
The female stays dull green above and yellowish below as do the young males until the late days of its first winter.
It breeds from Nova Scotia south to Georgia and South Carolina. Its winters are spent in Columbia, Bolivia and Peru. During their migration period they can be found along the east coast of Central America and in Cuba plus Jamaica.
Because of the hundreds of insects it devours each day, it sure is a welcome neighbor to have around.
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