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Posted by David Simpson on 19:37:53 10/10/08
In Reply to: Re: Western Tanager maybe? posted by graham langley
Hi Folks,
Besides the differences in wing patterns, the main field marks for separating Western and Scarlet (female type) tanagers are bill and back colors. Westerns have a more orangish bill where Scarlets are darker. The back of a Western tanager is gray, contrasting with the head and rump. Scarlet is more uniformly green without much or any contrast. Personally, I am not a big fan of soft part colors for cinching an ID, especially in summer/fall when you have more young birds around. Wing bars are simply different-colored tips of wing coverts. They can show up unexpectedly in freshly molted or juvenile plumages. Therefore, the pattern of the upperparts may be the best way to separate female Western/Scarlet tanagers.
I wish I had this problem more often, but I have only seen a few Westerns here in Florida. I have had a couple weakly wing-barred Scarlets as well.
David Simpson
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