Piranga ludoviciana
Male Western Tanagers have yellow bodies, brilliant red heads with black backs, wings and tails. Females and juveniles are olive-green with yellow below.
Yesterday morning I found this young Western Tanager in the Wasatch Mountains after it came out of a Gambel Oak tree to perch out into the open.
Yesterday morning I spent time photographing a female Western Tanager perched on a juniper in a canyon out in the sky island mountains of the West Desert of Utah.
Two days ago I had the opportunity to photograph a male Western Tanager up close in the foothills of some of the sky island mountains in the West Desert of Utah.
On four out of five trips up into the Wasatch Mountains this week I've been able to take images of immature and female Western Tanagers
It was fun to have the male and immature Western Tanager in my viewfinder for a few moments high in the Wasatch Mountains last week. I hope I see more soon.
As a bird photographer I'm feeling a sense of urgency now that I didn't feel a few weeks ago because as I watch the migrants in the Wasatch Mountains getting ready for their long journeys I know that my time for photographing them this year is quickly running out.
On August 24th I had an opportunity to photograph this female Western Tanager out in the open perched on a Utah Serviceberry for a second or two.
The bright yellow and red of this male Western Tanager caught my eye last May while on a dirt road in the Targhee National Forest in Idaho just south of the Montana state line.
This Western Tanager was photographed last summer at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the Centennial Valley of Beaverhead County, Montana.