If you walked or biked past Salmon and 32nd this winter, you would’ve seen a small group of Portlanders gathered on the street corner, binoculars in hand, peering up at the sky. Curious what they were all looking at, I stopped and asked them. Someone told me: there was a summer tanager (piranga rubra) hanging out in the treetops.
This is a rare sighting in winter. Typically, summer tanagers, who are mostly insectivores, head south as soon as the weather starts to turn.
“They’re usually far south by now,” life-long birder Tony DeFalco tells me. “Just because of the traditional migration patterns, food availability, and habitat, they like to be in the leafy canopy. They’re like, ‘We’re outta here.’ So to have that bird here now is exciting!”
On Ebird, a biodiversity-focused science project and online birding community, a subgroup emerged called “Stakeout Summer Tanager, SE Portland.” There you can find photos of the creature, along with audio of his songs and calls.
One of the birders who spoke to me in late December said he thought the tanager was hanging out in Sunnyside because one of the gracious neighbors was putting out citrus fruit for him and other birds. (Tanagers are known to eat fruit, especially in the fall. And I guess, if they’re stuck in Portland, winter.)
Because of its plumage, DeFalco surmises that it’s a first year male bird. “The coloration is not just the light-colored but the darker red as well. I’m not an expert on bird physiology but my read was that this is a first-year bird that got swept off course.”