Birdwatch

New Birds on the Block

You never know. You could spot a western tanager

By

susan CaMPBell The most exciting part of watch-

ing birds is that you never know who might show up — and when. After all, they have wings. They can and do show up, almost anytime, almost ever ywhere.

Here in the Piedmont and Sandhills of Nor th Carolina, wester n wanderers suddenly show up, soar ing overhead, perched in treetops or even at our feeders.

Like the wester n tanager, for instance, which we’ll get to shor tly. But a few words on the wanderers first.

Some birds are more prone to vag ranc y than others. W hether this behav ior is aimlessness — get ting lost or being blow n of f course — is hard to say. Not sur pr isingly, long- distance mig rants are at highest r isk for becoming conf used en route. A nd while it’s been st udied at g reat leng th, the tr uth is that we understand ver y lit tle about mig ration.

Here’s a l l we k now: most birds are suc c essf u l at m ig r at ion, wh ich a l lows t heir genes to b e pa sse d on to t he nex t gener at ion. T h is is not to say t hat t hose birds t hat end up of f t r ack are b ound to st ay lost forever or p er ish a s a resu lt of a w rong t ur n a long t he way. In f ac t , rese archers b el ieve t hat , in some c a ses, t hese out- ofplac e ind iv idua ls represent t he b eg inn ing of a r a nge ex pa nsion for t heir sp e cies. It’s do c umente d: Bird p opu lat ions move into new are a s of t he Un ite d St ates.

A species that has been obser ved well outside of its nor ma l range in the w inter more and more f requently is the wester n tanager. T his sma ll and color f ul songbird is found in the war mer months throughout most of the Wester n United States in a var iet y of wooded habitats. Come fa ll, they traditiona lly head for Mexico and Centra l A mer ica. But in the early 1990s, one showed up at a feeder in Wilming ton. It stayed for the w inter and, ama zingly, repeated its w inter stay t w ice, happily feeding on suet, shelled seeds and f r uit.

Since that first v isitor, more than t wo dozen wester n tanagers have been documented a long the souther n coast of our state. W hat does this mean? It’s probably too soon to tell. But bird lovers in our southeaster n counties are keeping an eye out for wester ns each year.

T his w inter, a ma le wester n tanager has repor tedly set tled into a yard in Apex. T he host is pleased. A nd more than likely, the handsome bird is one of t wo that were in residence there last season.

A ll tanagers molt t w ice a year. Because they’re drab look ing f rom early fa ll through early spr ing, wester n tanagers are sometimes hard to identif y when they appear in the E ast. Unlike our more common summer and scarlet tanagers, wester ns have noticeable bar r ing on their w ings and are a bit br ighter yellow on their under par ts.

I would wager that ver y few people reading this column have ever seen a wester n tanager out of its seasona l range. But it pays to be pre pared w ith binoculars and a good field g uide should an unfamiliar v isitor appear. W herever you are, rar ities are a lways possible, even in your ow n back yard. OH

Susan would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photos, especially if it’s a western tanager. She can be contacted by email at susan@ncaves.com.