Tanager Maybe Central Texas (1 Viewer)

[camallard]

Please help to ID from photos taken today. I believe it could a Scarlet Tanager but feel I'm wrong because of pointed bill. Thanks for your help.

 

[emupilot]

My impression is young male Summer Tanager.

 

[KenM]

It's a puzzler because it seems to fall between two camps! Undertail seeming to lack any greenish tones and the bill does appear to be a mite bigger than perhaps one would expect from Scarlet.
However that said..I'm aware that Western populations of Summer are slightly larger and longer billed than Eastern, might there be a similar differential with Scarlet over it's range extremity?

cheers

 

[peachfront]

I thought Summer Tanager as well. The bill size in proportion to the head is maybe part of what influenced my thinking. Afraid to touch on the subject of young male versus possibly an older female. If someone called "female," I would accept the call without questions. So don't take me as an expert either way. I might want a fuller explanation of how it could be a Scarlet...

 

[Microtus]

It's a puzzler because it seems to fall between two camps! Undertail seeming to lack any greenish tones and the bill does appear to be a mite bigger than perhaps one would expect from Scarlet.
However that said..I'm aware that Western populations of Summer are slightly larger and longer billed than Eastern, might there be a similar differential with Scarlet over it's range extremity?

cheers

Hi, not that I've ever heard.

 

[KenM]

My first impression was Fem/Imm.Summer....but without a better profile image being supplied I hedged my bets!...hence the question concerning any possible size differential over the range of Scarlet Tanager.

cheers

 

[Microtus]

It looks too orange for a Scarlet Tanager.

 

[emupilot]

It looks too orange for a Scarlet Tanager.

Although my experience with Scarlet is limited, it seems like they should be either red or yellow-green, not something in between. I guessed immature male Summer thinking it had a little too much red to be female, but I could be mistaken on that.

 

[KC Foggin]

I dug out one of my Summer Tanager pics from a September file for comparison.

 

[james holdsworth]

Dark lores, big long bill, orangy tone to the p's all say Summer.

 

[Microtus]

It looks too orange for a Scarlet Tanager.

Not very well put on my part, now that I think of it. But, it doesn't really say Scartet to me.

 

[peachfront]

To Micro: We knew what you meant, or I did anyway. Yay, I think we have a consensus -- summer tanager it is.

To Emu: Older summer females can have quite a bit of color, in my opinion...but I'm glad you explained why you guessed young male at first, it makes sense and makes it easier to follow the logic.

I'm going to say I'm not skilled enough to tell young male from older (and especially mature) female, at this time of year, heck, we'd encounter both, wouldn't we? In spring I'm used to seeing a lot of the "blotchy" young males for lack of a better description. They can have some very noticeable already red patches on em, makes the job easy.

Not very well put on my part, now that I think of it. But, it doesn't really say Scartet to me.

 

[camallard]

Thanks to everyone for the insight on this id...Summer Tanager it is.