This is Bird Note.

A male western tanager chirps loudly from the branch of a Douglas fir.

The tanager's tune is as sharp as his brightly colored red head.

With a yellow body jacketed in black,

the Western Tanager is a flash of bright color in the coniferous forests of the West.

Sounds almost like a robin, doesn't it? Western Tanagers dart from tree to tree on the lookout for

delicious bugs.

They find them by scanning the tree bark, or maybe snatching them from mid-air during flight,

a tactic called hawking.

Nuts and fruits round out this little songbirds diet.

The western Tannager can breed farther north than any other North American Tanniger,

as far up as southeast Alaska and the Yukon.

But come winter, these little birds head south.

The male's red head fades to yellow in the off-season.

Still, the tanager's sharp, colorful suits help them fit right in with the other brightly colored tropical birds they'll spend the winter with in Mexico and Central America.

Head over to our website and catch more on the Western Tanager, birdnote.org.

I'm Mary McCann.

Birdnote gives you the sounds of birds every day,

and you get the sites as well when you follow us on Instagram

at BirdNote Radio.