Re[2]: Western Tanager at Riverbend, VA

Kathy Klimkiewicz (Kathy_Klimkiewicz@usgs.gov)
Fri, 9 Oct 1998 10:04:13 -0600 

     Female Scarlet Tanagers in first year fall plumage do not have black 
     wings. There are brown to gray brown. I have handled and seen Scarlets 
     with the narrow white wing bars. Adult Scarlets also do not have black 
     wings. Young males look like females except for the black wing coverts 
     (primary coverts are usually brown and most or all of the flight 
     feathers are brown). Even in the spring young males still have the 
     brown feathers contrasting with the black adult ones and can still be 
     aged through the first breeding season as birds hatched in the 
     previous season (SY in banding terms).
     
     Cheers,
     Kathy Klimkiewicz
     Laurel MD


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Western Tanager at Riverbend, VA
Author:  mdosprey@ARI.Net at NBS-Internet-Gateway
Date:    10/8/98 7:28 PM


Rob,
     
I have heard of this thin wing bar on the black wings of Scarlet's 
occasionally being seen on first year birds after the molt into basic plummage 
(or maybe it is during the molt?).  Cannot say I have ever seen this, but all 
the books describe it to some degree.  Fortunately, the wing bars on a Western 
are quite obvious (including the one at Riverbend) and do not require a second 
look from a more direct angle to glimpse.  In fact, when I first viewed the 
bird, it was from the back and the lime green scapular, lighter lime green 
colored-nape and back of head and the white wing bars on the grayish wings 
(viewing angle about 15degrees, and note that the wings were not black) lead 
to an initial thought that this was a warbler, possibly a Black-throated 
Green.  When the bird turned and the nice yellow breast (quite unlike a 
Scarlet's greenish yellow) contrasted quite well with the nape and scapulars, 
I was clearly forced to think in other directions.  Imagine, if you will, 
picking up a lime and a lemon at the grocery store and holding them side-to- 
side.  This is somewhat similar to the colors on the Western at Riverbend.  
     
(There is this great Simon Perkins story in Mass. about denying a Western 
sighting because the lime green back was not described.  A few minutes after 
the initial call was placed to the hotline number, Perkins called the 
correspondent with the reply, "you saw a Baltimore Oriole - Westerns have 
green backs," and then quickly hung up.  No amount of arguments subsequently 
made a difference to him since people can easily change their descriptions 
after the fact!).
     
The helpful Yellow-rump landing on the next branch gave a useful size 
reference as well as body shape reference - somewhat chunky and not slender 
(which was neccessary to consider and eliminate a Balto Oriole - the poor 
lighting at that point had not allowed me to carefully consider the bill of 
the bird.  Fortunately, I could reacquire the bird after it flew over to the 
tree-edge and presented itself in much better light.
     
Kurt Gaskill