2 minute read
I Can’t Talk - I’m Bird Watching
P
ANN GILLIS
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The Western Tanager is a medium-sized songbird with a thicker bill. Females are yellowish overall with dark wings marked by two wingbars.
I Can’t Talk -
I’M BIRD WATCHING
IT’S BEEN SAID THAT “YOU CAN DO WORSE THAN TO SPEND YOUR DAYS STARING AT BLUE JAYS.” ONE LOCAL BIRD WATCHER CAN ATTEST TO THAT ALL TOO WELL, ESPECIALLY AFTER A RARE SPOTTING OF A BIRD NOT KNOWN FOR FLYING WITH BLUE JAYS.
Story by JOHN RIDDLE / Photography by ANN GILLIS
Ann Gillis is an avid bird watcher and long-time member of the Okefenokee Bird Club, so seeing a rare bird now and again is nothing new. But, when she looked through her window on December 30, 2020, and saw what she thought was a female Summer Tanager, she was excited. Ann grabbed her camera and got a photo. However, after posting it on Facebook she received a call informing her that the bird she saw was indeed rare, even rarer than she knew.
“I received a call from Sheila Willis, Okefenokee Bird Club president, who informed me that the bird I photographed is a Western Tanager and is very rare for our area,” Ann said. “Sheila, who has kept records for the bird club for many years regarding who saw what type of bird, when and where, said no one that she was aware of has photographed a Western Tanager although a few have reported that they had seen one.” The club was founded in 1956.
Ann verified many of the club’s members’ consensus that it was a Western Tanager with various field guides and eventually with Kenn Kaufman, an author of several field guides.
“It is a Western Tanager and is really rare for Georgia,” Kenn wrote Ann, verifying that the bird’s natural habitat is much farther North and West of South Georgia. “It is way out of its natural territory, which is much farther north than any other Tanager. Its normal breeding territory is northwest of a latitude of 60 Degrees into Canada’s northwest territories.”
A quick internet search found multiple maps tracking the bird’s regular residency and breeding areas. None show the natural habitat for the Western Tanager east of Texas. Unlike the Scarlet Tanager, whose territory is predominately east of Texas. Though the Western Tanager does fly south for the winter to Mexico and even into South America.
The last time Ann saw the Western Tanager was on February 25, 2021. While she is still excited about photographing such a rare bird and being the first in Okefenokee Bird Club to do so, she is now on to other sightings. On March 16th, she saw her first hummingbird of the season, so now, "...a new adventure begins.”
Territory of the Western Tanager
