When you daily monitor your bird feeders you get to know what birds frequent it. You can recognize a new bird quite easily. It’s the color, shape, and size.

For the last couple of days I’ve noticed a bird smaller than a robin and bigger than a nuthatch or chickadee. It is also sleeker than a junco. Birds are so distinctive in their color that you can take a mental picture and look it up in a book. I’ve identified birds from color drawings and actual photos in books. It’s tricky but can be done. i learned to rid my library of all bird books that don’t pertain to the local area. it just confuses matters to have a book covering too large an area. I use the app Merlin and they request to know the location of the sighting. This is very important because I’m not going to get a cardinal here.

I focus on birds in western washington. Our climate is unique. Also, more than likely I’m seeing a common bird that shows up in every local bird book. I’m piggy backing on other’s work. These books will also state at what elevation the bird is typically seen. It may also mention that the bird like feeders in neighborhoods.

The bird I noticed I couldn’t get a good picture of it until today. Yesterday, I didn’t get to my camera on time to take a picture and send it through merlin. But I was able to make a good guess but thought I was wrong. It couldn’t be a western tanager because there is no red on the top. Well the red on the head is the male. The female shows no red and isn’t as bright yellow. I took a picture from a long distance and put it through merlin. It was a western tanager with the note that this would be a rare sighting. Really? this birds seems to come around in the early evening and enjoys the suet. I only have a couple of pictures of it. They are posted here.