This is Birdnode, a male western tannager chirps loudly from the branch of a Douglas fir.

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

With a yellow body jacketed in black, the western tannager is a flash of bright color

in the coniferous forest of the west.

Sounds almost like a robin, doesn't it?

Western tannagers 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 tannager,

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 tannagers' 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 tannager, birdnote.org.

I'm Mary McCann.