Monthly Archives: April 2025

Birder with ties to Northeast Tennessee plans Global Big Day

1 Reply

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Brayden Paulk introduces Rufous, a surprisingly tame ruffed grouse that lived on his grandfather’s farm for several years.

Brayden Paulk recently sent me an email to share some recent bird sightings he has made in Georgia.

As background, I’ve known Brayden since the summer of 2016. At the time, he was 17 years old and visiting with his grandparents in Flag Pond for the summer. We got acquainted thanks to an amazing ruffed grouse hanging out at a barn.

Brayden named the grouse Rufous who, as it turned out, was a remarkable bird. Ruffed grouse are, as a rule, shy and retiring birds. Not Rufous. He was an in-your-face sort of grouse. Getting to meet and observe this amazing bird was a privilege.

After we met so that I could make acquaintance with Rufous, Brayden and I did some birding at Rock Creek Recreation Area and then some stops on U.S. Forest Service lands along Highway 107 between Limestone Cove and the North Carolina line. Brayden wanted very much to add a black-throated blue warbler to his life list, and I very much wanted to help him find it.

We did manage to locate a singing veery, a scarlet tanager and a dark-eyed junco. We also found several warblers, including black-and-white warbler, worm-eating warbler and black-throated green warbler, but I began to fear we wouldn’t manage to locate his target bird.

But I am happy to report that we managed to find a male black-throated blue warbler. So, that productive morning back in 2016 resulted in my meeting with a grouse with a lot of personality and Brayden getting a new species for his life list of birds.

When we first met, Brayden was living with his family in Oxford, Alabama. During our first in-person meeting he made a point to tell me that his grandparents, Leon and Janice Rhodes, mailed him every one of my bird columns.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • The late Leon Rhodes teases Rufous the ruffed grouse.

These days he is living in Georgia, which is also providing the focus for most of his birding. He returns often to Tennessee. In fact, he has given a couple of talks to the Elizabethton Bird Club over the years, impressing his audience with his enthusiasm and engaging way of presenting information.

His talk were, surprisingly, not about birds. He spoke about his other passion, fishing, but still managed to make a few mentions of birds in the process.

Brayden has also worked for a couple of summers at Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park in Flag Pond as a seasonal interpretive ranger.

Anyway, enough with the background and back to his recent email.

“I hope everything is going well with you and the bird club,” he wrote. “I wanted to contact you about some interesting recent sightings I have had that I thought you would be interested in. I have been able to put a lot of effort into birding so far this spring and it has turned up some fantastic finds.”

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Rufous, a rather tame ruffed grouse, who made his home in Unicoi County for several years.

His finds have even established some records in Laurens County in Georgia where he now lives.

His local birding loop in his home county has been very productive.

On April 7, his observations of common loons resulted in a county high count for the species. He found 14 loons on one lake and six on another nearby lake. The next highest count before his sighting had stood at two birds.

“That loop has also been very productive for shorebirds, as there are some flooded areas in nearby fields where I have seen lots of greater and lesser yellowlegs and snipe,” he wrote.

“I also got excellent views of a Swainson’s warbler within feet of me at an area on the loop with some swamp and cane thicket habitat,” Brayden added.

On April 7 while running his llocal birding loop in Laurens County, Georgia, Brayden Paulk saw the county high count for common loons with 14 on one lake and 6 on another nearby.

That sighting alone is something that would make many birders envious. I have been birding since 1993 and I can count on one hand the number of looks I’ve had of Swainson’s warbler. The species is often localized, meaning it takes some effort to locate. It’s easy to hear them. The Swainson’s warbler has a loud, ringing song similar to a Louisiana waterthrush. I’ve heard Swainson’s warblers much more frequently than I have seen them.

Brayden also shared his excitement about seeing his first first Horned Lark in the county. He saw the lark, a bird of open fields, at a different location. “It seems to be one of those birds you have to try to find by going to a sod farm or open country,” he noted.

“The Laurens County Loop has also been great for me in the past, and one particular pond turned up the first eBird county records for American avocet, white-rumped sandpiper and long billed dowitcher,” he wrote. “I have also found breeding painted buntings on the loop as well and had an excellent view of them with my dad.”

Brayden also wanted to share some more exciting news.

“I will be moving to Gulf Shores in coastal Alabama in a few weeks, which is one of my favorite places to go birding,” he wrote. “I plan on going to Dauphin Island on the Global Big Day because it is an incredible place to see migrants, and my goal is to find 150 species on that day.”

This year’s Global Big Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 10. Global Big Day is an annual birdwatching event hosted by eBird and Cornell Lab of Ornithology to celebrate and document bird migration. The event was created as a fun and engaging way for bird enthusiasts of all levels to contribute to science and conservation by reporting their bird sightings.

Brayden also hopes to visit Unicoi County again soon to do some birding there and look for some of the species he missed last Summer.

“Thank you for writing your bird articles,” he wrote at the conclusion of his email. “They have inspired me since I was young!”

It’s not easy to put into words how much that unexpected praise made me feel. I am incredibly gratified that I could have provide some inspiration to get such a gifted young man into the field looking for birds.

Readers may recall that I’ve had some deterioration of vision in recent years. With a pair of binoculars, I can still bring birds close enough to enjoy and appreciate their beauty and vivacity. Spotting birds, which is a skill that takes some practice to achieve, is no longer easy for me. Ah, the things we take for granted…

My hearing remains unimpaired. I have enjoyed making note of returning warblers and other birds simply by hearing their familiar songs ringing through the woodlands at my home for yet another spring.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve also had the pleasure of watching daily as a feisty male ruby-throated hummingbird visits the feeders arranged around my front porch.

In closing, I invite everyone to wish Brayden luck with his upcoming Global Big Day. I hope to update everyone with how he does.

•••

To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

Joyas voladoras: Hummingbirds welcomed back to region

1 Reply

Michele Spark • Female ruby-throated hummingbirds lack the red throat patch, known as a gorget, that is present on adult males.

Readers continue to welcome back hummingbirds and share their first spring sightings of these tiny birds.

•••

“My husband Marvin and I saw our first hummingbird March 31 in Rogersville, Tennessee,” Mary Powers wrote in an email.

“We’ve been seeing them most days since then,” she added.

Mary said she put the feeder up a week before her sighting.

“Of course I change the syrup every week and clean it,” she noted.

•••

Kenneth Oakes commented on my Facebook page about his first sighting.

“I’ve just seen my first this year about 30 minutes ago on April 6 in an area near Sunshine, North Carolina,” Kenneth wrote.

•••

Dianne Rebmann emailed me to share her first spring hummingbird sighting.

“I saw my first hummingbird April 8,” she wrote. “There were actually two of them, and I caught them on Trailcam.”

Dianne lives in the Willowbrook community in Kingsport near the Meadowview Convention Center.

•••

Annie Morton and Pete Fredrick emailed me information about their first spring sighting.

“We wanted to share the news that we saw our first ruby-throated hummingbird (male) at home on April 9,” they wrote. “We live off Dry Creek Road in Unicoi County.”

They added that they hung a feeder last week after reading my article in The Erwin Record about the pending arrival time for hummingbirds.

“What a thrill to see the first one at the feeder while eating our breakfast yesterday morning,” they added to the end of their email.

•••

Diane Graham, a Jonesborough resident, spotted her first little one Wednesday morning (April 9) at her feeder.

“I think he was passing through,” she wrote in her email.

Diane also recorded two other visiting hummingbirds, one each on April 10 and April 11.

“None are yet making multiple visits during the day,” she added.

•••

April Kerns Fain commented on my Facebook page about her first sighting. “I saw the first one on April 9,” commented April, who lives in Unicoi.

•••

Sue Schreiner posted on my Facebook page about her first spring sighting.

“Just spotted my first hummingbird today (April 11) in Bluff City. Yay!” Sue wrote.

•••

Felicia Mitchell in Meadowview, Virginia, shared her first spring hummingbird sighing via a Facebook message. Felicia saw her first hummingbird on Sunday, April 13.

•••

In a Facebook comment on April 13, Flag Pond resident Regina Ray reported that she has seen her first spring hummingbird.

•••

Paula Elam Booher commented on my Facebook page that she saw her first hummingbird of spring in Bristol on April 13.

•••

Gina Kinney emailed to let me know that her mom Ginger Brackins saw her first hummingbird on April 14 at 6:25 p.m. in Erwin.

“She wanted me to email you right away,” Gina wrote.

•••

“I’ve had my hummingbird feeders up for a few weeks, but finally this afternoon (April 14) at 4 p.m. a female hummer had one all to herself,” Michelle Sparks, a resident of Bluff City, wrote to me by email.

•••

“Yesterday (April 14) I saw a hummingbird check out our feeder,” Donald Beck emailed me.

“It did not drink and I have not seen it any time since,” Donald, a resident of Bray Road in Stanley Valley in Rogersville, reported.

“Was it just on its way north?” Donald also asked.

It’s true, I noted in my response to his question, that many of these first hummingbird sightings are not the birds that will spend the summer months with us. Many of these “early” hummingbirds will continue migrating farther north, but others will arrive, like what they see and decide to stick around.

•••

Diane Hensley Silvers posted on April 16 in a Facebook comment that hummingbird numbers have only increased since the first one arrived.

“I have several now,” Diane wrote. “They arrived at my house in Washington County about 10 days ago.”

•••

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Ruby-throated hummingbirds such as this male are returning to the region.

Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife offers an online profile for the ruby-throated hummingbird, including interesting information about how such a tiny bird makes its phenomenal crossing of the Gulf of Mexico each spring to return to the eastern United States.

To accomplish this tremendous migratory crossing, a hummingbird will double its body mass by fattening on nectar and insects in the weeks prior to departure.

No hummingbird species other than ruby-throated hummingbird breeds in Tennessee, but several Western species have been found in the state during the non-breeding season. They arrive anytime after late August and usually depart in April. At least seven western species of hummingbird has been recorded in the Volunteer State, including rufous, black-chinned, Allen’s, Anna’s, calliope and broad-tailed hummingbirds.

There’s also a couple of reports of a green violet-ear, a species that is usually found in forested regions of Mexico and Nicaragua. The species has ventured into Tennessee twice, being documented in Memphis in September of 2007 and in Montgomery County in July of 2020.

I’ve seen several of these western “visitors” throughout the years, but my greatest affection is still attached to the ruby-throated hummingbird.

Most hummingbirds impress with their size, or rather the lack of it. It’s that tiny size that has prompted people to describe them as “miracles” from the time the first European explorers sailed to the New World in the late 1400s. When Spanish explorers first encountered them, they had no equivalent birds in Europe to use as a reference. They referred to hummingbirds as “joyas voladoras,” or flying jewels.

If your yard offers some trees and shrubs, necessary for perching, you can attract ruby-throated hummingbirds. It pays to have a feeder available with a fresh mixture of one part sugar to four parts water. This is the formula that closely matches the sweetness of nectar available from flowers. In warm conditions, you’ll need to change out the mixture every few days. Give the feeders a scrubbing and rinse while changing out the sugar water. Then sit back and enjoy the antics of these pint-sized delights.

•••

To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

Photo by Bryan Stevens • Despite a perceived disadvantage of size, ruby-throated hummingbirds are quite capable of thriving in a giant world.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds stage their spring return to region

1 Reply

Bryan Stevens • A male ruby-throated hummingbird perches on a sugar water feeder.

In an article posted on March 27, Journey North, an organization and website that tracks migrating hummingbirds, announced that so far this spring, bird-watchers in 12 states had reported ruby-throated hummingbirds, but it’s still early in the season.

“So far, we have one sighting each in Kentucky and Tennessee and two in Arkansas, but we’re expecting more in the coming weeks,” noted the blog post by Journey North.

One week later, hummingbirds arrived in locations in Unicoi County, Carter County and Washington County in Northeast Tennessee.

Journey North is a citizen science project that engages citizen scientists in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. It’s a fun way to track the migration of everything from hummingbirds to butterflies like monarchs.

•••

“Hummingbirds are here!” Beverly King, a resident on Marbleton Road in Unicoi, wrote in an email. “We saw our first hummingbird today, Saturday, April 5.”

Beverly noted that she was excited to see hummingbirds slightly early this year.

“We usually see them about the 15th of the month,” she added. “Well, my feeders are now up. We could not tell if it was a female or a male.”

Bryan Stevens • A female ruby-throated hummingbird perches on a feeder.

 

•••

Erwin resident Amy Tipton sent me a Facebook message announcing that her parents had enjoyed a visit from a returning hummingbird.

“My parents, Edison and Emma Jean Wallin, had their first hummingbird of the season visit today, Saturday, April 5 at 4:30,” Amy wrote. “They live about a mile up Limestone Cove in Unicoi.”

•••

Dianne Draper in Jonesborough shared on my Facebook page about her first hummingbirds of the season.

“Our first ones showed up on April 5,” she noted. “We had two.”

•••

I’ve already seen my first hummingbird, as well. I have a bed of tulips blooming at my home. I planted them last fall and have been thrilled with their performance. I was outdoors admiring the tulips when I heard a brief but tantalizing buzzing noise. Although I scanned all around me, I failed to confirm that I’d heard a hummingbird.

A half hour later, however, while reading on my front porch, I saw my first hummingbird of 2025 when a male zipped up to one of my sugar water feeders. He returned twice while I stayed outdoors reading on a misty afternoon. He arrived at 4:14 p.m. on Sunday, April 6.

In 2024, I saw my first hummingbird on April 17 at 7:15 p.m. This year’s bird is certainly arriving earlier than is typical, but I was thrilled to see him.

•••

Gayle Riddervold, who lives only a few miles from my home on Simerly Creek Road in Hampton, reported that she and Becky Kinder saw their first spring hummingbird on April 8.

“We just saw our first hummingbird today,” Gayle wrote in a Facebook message. “Yesterday we saw a belted kingfisher on our road.”

•••

Brookie and Jean Potter, residents at Wilbur Lake in Elizabethton, sent me a text about the arrival of their first spring hummingbird on Wednesday, April 9, at 5:45 p.m.

They added, “It came back to feed again around 7 p.m.”

•••

Technically, TD, a follower of my “Our Fine Feathered Friends” blog, provided the earliest report of a hummingbird this spring. Of course, TD has the benefit of living in Texas, close to the Gulf of Mexico that these tiny birds must cross to return to the United States each spring.

The bird TD spotted arrived on Wednesday March 26, at 2:34 p.m. central time.

“A ruby-throated hummingbird male stopped at my feeder on my front porch a mile from Corpus Christi Bay after an hour of a rain shower,” TD wrote in a comment.

TD also reported that Corpus Christi has been in a drought so severe that residents have not been allowed to water outside since last fall.

TD’s hummingbird arrived with the first rainfall in more than two months.

“So I was watching the lovely rain when this hummingbird perched onto my hummingbird feeder,” TD wrote. “I have a very large window and hang four hummingbird feeders along the front porch.”

TD noted that the male’s iridescent ruby red around his neck resembled a scarf. “I named him Texas Tuxedo,” TD shared.

TD also saw a female hummingbird on Wednesday, April 2, at 7:15 a.m.

TD said the female hummer acted shy and fluttered around the feeder before feeling safe to perch for feeding.

It’s usually the case that females lag behind males in their annual migration back to the United States.

•••

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A male ruby-throated hummingbird perches at a feeder for a sip of sugar water.

The hummingbirds are an amazing family of birds. There are an estimated 330 species of hummingbirds, all of which are found in the New World. Consider that these dazzling little birds have been given vividly descriptive names, such as cinnamon-throated hermit, red-tailed comet, blue-chinned sapphire, lazuline sabrewing, sparkling violetear, fiery topaz, green-tailed goldenthroat, bronze-tailed plumeleteer, amethyst-throated mountain-gem, peacock coquette, red-billed emerald, empress brilliant, purple-backed sunbeam, green-backed hillstar, orange-throated sunangel, black metaltail, marvelous spatuletail and blue-tufted starthroat.

The only hummingbird species to inhabit the eastern United States from spring to fall each year is the ruby-throated hummingbird, which is currently arriving at various points from Florida to Maine and westward to states like Illinois, Minnesota and Oklahoma and north into Canada.

To return each year, ruby-throated hummingbirds make an awe-inspiring and non-stop crossing of the Gulf of Mexico. Even more incredible, they make the trip again in the fall when they return to warmer locations in Central America to spend the winter months.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds lead relatively brief lives. The oldest known ruby-throated hummingbird was a female, according to the website All About Birds. She was at least 9 years, 2 months old when she was recaptured and rereleased in 2014 during banding operations in West Virginia.

•••

These shared sightings represent some of the “early bird” sightings of hummingbirds. I welcome more reports as other people continue to observe returning hummingbirds. Email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com or find me on Facebook to share your sightings. Provide a date and time, if possible. Good luck with the hummingbird watching.

Brown thrasher helps bid March adieu, welcomes April

4 Replies

Photo by Ken Thomas • The Brown Thrasher is an alert, sharp-eyed observer of its surroundings.

I heard the paired notes of a signing male brown thrasher on Saturday, March 29, confirming the return of this large songbird. The thrasher was signing from a dead blue spruce tree surrounded by a thicket of forsythia in full golden bloom. I’ve usually celebrated the return of brown thrashers in the final days of March.

This year’s brown thrasher was slightly tardy. For instance, this species returned on March 24 in 2021 and 2023. Back in 2018, I had a “early bird” when a shy brown thrasher put in its first appearance of the year on Feb. 21. Back in 2020, a pair of brown thrashers returned on March 12. Last year, I didn’t see the first brown thrasher until the first week of April.

The brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) belongs to the family of “mimic thrushes,” which provides a label for a group of songbirds capable of imitating the songs of other birds. Mimidae, the Latin root for “mimic,” provides the scientific name for the family, which includes mockingbirds and the New World catbirds, as well as thrashers. The Northern mockingbird is best known for the ability to mimic, but relatives like the gray catbird and brown thrasher are also talented mimics.

Early American naturalist and artist John James Audubon painted a dramatic scene of Brown Thrashers defending their nest from an attacking snake.

The thrasher is a fairly large songbird about 11.5 inches long with a wingspan of 13 inches. Much of the body length comes from the bird’s long tail feathers. A thrasher weighs, however, only about 2.5 ounces, which is equivalent to a stack of about two dozen pennies. The brown thrasher is not a picky eater. It’s known to eat everything from berries and nuts to insects and small salamanders.

It’s also aggressive in defending its nest and young. John James Audubon, a French-American ornithologist, naturalist and painter, painted quite the dramatic scene of a group of brown thrashers valiantly defending a nest from an attacking snake. The painting is so detailed that one has to imagine Audubon based his work on a real-life experience. His work, originally painted in the early decades of the 1800s, still holds up today.

Incidentally, Audubon knew the brown thrasher as the “ferruginous thrush.” Another former common name for this species was “brown thrush.” The brown thrasher breeds across the United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. Thrashers withdraw from the northern part of their range in the winter months, spending the season in the southeastern United States.

This species is a familiar bird in southern gardens. In fact, the brown thrasher is the official state bird of Georgia and also provided the name for Atlanta’s National Hockey League team, the Atlanta Thrashers. The thrasher became Georgia’s state bird due to passage of a Joint Resolution of the Georgia General Assembly in 1970.

According to the website All About Birds, brown thrashers, like catbirds and mockingbirds, are mimics with extremely varied repertoires consisting of more than 1,100 song types.

According to the website, male brown thrashers sing a loud, long series of doubled phrases with no definite beginning or end. The song has been described as “plant a seed, plant a seed, bury it, bury it, cover it up, cover it up, let it grow, let it grow, pull it up, pull it up, eat it, eat it.” I’m not sure I would have come up with that same phrasing, but I can detect some of it when listening to a singing thrasher.

All About Birds points out that while mockingbirds tend to repeat phrases three or more times, brown thrashers typically sing phrases only twice.

Photo by Bryan Stevens
A pair of Brown Thrashers forage for food on the ground below a feeder.

They also mimic the songs of other species, including chuck-will’s-widow, Northern flicker, white-eye vireo, tufted titmouse, wood thrush, and Northern cardinal.

The New World is home to less than a dozen thrasher species. Other relatives of the brown thrasher include Bendire’s thrasher, LeConte’s thrasher, gray thrasher and long-billed thrasher.

Other new arrivals have included blue-grey gnatcatcher, which showed up on April 2. I placed two sugar water feeders outdoors for the hummingbirds on the first day of April. This year, I Have not had to wait long for their return. The first male ruby-throated hummingbird showed up at my feeder on Sunday, April 6. I will write more on this year’s first hummingbird arrivals in next week’s post. Remember to let me know when the hummingbirds arrive at your home. Share your first spring sighting by emailing me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.

Brown Thrasher visits a suet feeder. The thrasher diet consists of everything from berries and seeds to insects and even small reptiles.

Here are a few birds to look for this spring

Leave a reply

Photo by Bryan Stevens • A male hooded warbler perches in a cluster of branches.

Has it been a slow spring? I have felt that it’s been one step forward, two steps back. But April has finally arrived. Although we’re now two days into the month, I’m still waiting on some of my first arrivals among our fine feathered friends.

That’s not an unusual situation. I think the birds like to drag out their springtime arrivals. They know that being tardy is sure to aggravate me as I’m not known for patience.

The first male red-winged blackbird returned to the fish pond in mid-March and has been singing persistently from the tops of the bald cypress trees bordering the pond. I haven’t seen a female red-winged blackbird yet, but they tend to arrive later than males.

Of course, and I don’t think I’m alone in this hope, I’m also eager to welcome back ruby-throated hummingbirds. These tiny flying gems should be back any day now. My sugar water feeders are waiting for them.

I hope readers will once again share the first arrival dates of hummingbirds at their own feeders. Jot down the date and time, as well as any other details you’d like to share, and email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com or message me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ahoodedwarbler/

With those preliminary thoughts shared, what else will I look for as the spring advances? Longtime readers will know of my enthusiasm for warblers, also known as New World warblers or wood-warblers.

They’re a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae. The family, which occurs only in the New World, contains 120 species. They are not closely related to Old World warblers or Australian warblers.

About half of the 120 species reside in Central and South America, but the others migrate north each spring to nest in the United States and Canada. In Northeast Tennessee, we have about two dozen nesting species that make their home with us from April to October.

The warbler I look forward most to seeing is the hooded warbler, partly due to individuals belonging to this species nesting in the woodlands around my home.

Photo by USFWS/A female hooded warbler stays put on her nest.

So, from the time my favorite warbler returns in April until the last individual departs in October, I enjoy regular glimpses of this colorful and interesting bird. Like all warblers, the hooded warbler is quite energetic, dashing after tiny insects in the branches of shrubs and trees. Hooded warblers often forage close to the ground, which makes observing them easier.

Of course, birds are free to break the rules. One of my most memorable sightings of a hooded warbler involved a male singing from the upper branches of a dead pine tree. I’d estimate that the bird was at least 40 feet off the ground, singing his little heart out to attract a mate. I was standing on an elevated rise of land while the tree providing the warbler its perch was lower in a gully that actually placed bird and observer on a roughly level playing field.

That sighting took place 25 years ago, but the image of that male hooded warbler singing so enthusiastically has remained emblazoned in my memory.

This particular bird sang for several moments, which is not always the case with warblers. These birds tend to dash for cover at the slightest disturbance, but this enthusiastic male didn’t seem to pay any heed to the fact that most of its kin prefer to skulk in shrubs and dense rhododendron thickets no more than a few feet off the ground.

It’s one bird unlikely to be mistaken for any other. Every time I behold a hooded warbler, I marvel at the bird’s exquisite appearance. The gold and green feathers seem to glow brightly in the dim light of the shadowy thickets of rhododendron they prefer to inhabit. The black hood and bib surrounding the male’s yellow face stands out by virtue of its stark contrast from the brighter feathers. Large coal-black eyes complete the effect. The appearance of the male bird provides this species with its common name.

The female hooded warbler has an identical yellow-green coloration as the male, although she is slightly more drab. She lacks the black hood and bib, although older females may acquire some dark plumage on the head and around the face. Both sexes also show white tail feathers that they constantly fan and flick as they move about in thick vegetation and shrubbery.

Photo Courtesy of Jean Potter
A male scarlet tanager brightens shadowy woodlands with a flash of tropical colors yet remains mostly inconspicuous in the forest canopy.

In addition to warblers, I also look forward to the return of scarlet tanagers. Males are unmistakable in their bright red plumage accented by black wings. This is one bird that is truly breathtaking when lured into the open for an observation through a pair of binoculars.

During their summer stay in the region, scarlet tanagers largely prey on insects. Although renowned as a fruit-eating bird, the scarlet tanager primarily feeds on fruit during its migration flights and on its wintering range in the tropics. This tanager breeds in deciduous and mixed deciduous-evergreen woodlands across the eastern half of North America. It’s my understanding that oaks are a favorite tree for this woodland dweller.

It’s unlikely that you’ll run across the nest of a scarlet tanager. These birds nest high in trees, often locating their nests 50 feet or more above the ground. After building a nest, a female tanager will incubate her three to five eggs for about two weeks. It’s during this time that her inconspicuous appearance is a plus, helping her blend well with her surroundings.

So, as I wait for warblers, hummingbirds and tanagers, I’ll just have to be a little more patient. I’m also hopeful that the fish pond will attract some nesting birds such as tree swallows and wood ducks. Fingers crossed!

•••

Remember to let me know about your first hummingbird sightings. Email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com to notify me of a sighting, ask a question or share a comment.