Yellow w/red-ish head - LoLo, Montana (1 Viewer)

[TGNWest]

Hiking a trail outside of LoLo, Montana, and spotted this bird with it's lunch. But not sure what it is, it's obscured enough to throw Merlin off.

 

[birdmeister]

A beautiful male Western Tanager!

 

[Lisa W]

It is indeed a beautiful one, well done.

 

[Butty]

it's obscured enough to throw Merlin off

A specialist N-American-based bird ID app fails where iNaturalist and even Google Lens both get it right. Oh dear... 👎🏼
Ed. Actually... You must be doing something wrong with Merlin: it does identify it.

 

[Sangahyando]

If Nutcracker were here, he could tell us the species of tree as well...
Regarding the bird in question, it's pretty easy to identify using the Sibley guide.

 

[foresttwitcher]

If Nutcracker were here, he could tell us the species of tree as well...

Can't live up to Nutcracker's reputation but the three-pointed bracts in the cones point to Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).

 

[01101001]

it's obscured enough to throw Merlin off.

Inspired by Butty's post above, I tried to harness Merlin for the identification process. Here's what I did and the result (with the caveat that Rosy-faced Lovebird, and not Western Tanager, also often appeared as the first choice, which was wrong indeed).

EDIT: Below is also the more precise result for a similar query with a set location and date. Beautiful bird indeed!

 

[Andy Adcock]

Can't live up to Nutcracker's reputation but the three-pointed bracts in the cones point to Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).

Here's a snippet of trivia.

David Douglas (of Douglas Fir fame), botanist, died under mysterious circumstances while climbing Mauna Kea in Hawaii at the age of 35 in 1834.[9] He apparently fell into a pit trap where he was mauled to death by a bull. He was last seen alive at the hut of Englishman Edward "Ned" Gurney, a bullock hunter and escaped convict. Gurney was suspected in Douglas's death, as Douglas was said to have been carrying more money than Gurney subsequently delivered with the body; others suggested he might have been robbed and murdered by two native Hawaiians. However, no evidence was found to contradict Gurney's story.[10]

 

[Butty]

Rosy-faced Lovebird . . . also often appeared as the first choice, which was wrong indeed

This happened even after you had given NW USA as the location? (If you hadn't given the location, that would obviously be just misuse of the app rather than any failing by the app.) Before making my edit in #4, I entered the photo and the location and got the correct ID listed first, n=1.

 

[01101001]

This happened even after you had given NW USA as the location?

No.

If you hadn't given the location, that would obviously be just misuse of the app rather than any failing by the app.

Yes, but I wanted to demonstrate that Merlin gives decent results even without a location/date. I also once tested the app in a zoo lacking (some half of) bird species labels.

Before making my edit in #4, I entered the photo and the location and got the correct ID listed first, n=1.

Same.

 

[TGNWest]

You guys are an awesome bunch 🤩 thanks for all the help and input!