![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/western-tanager-4690-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMale Western Tanagers are known for their red heads but there can be considerable variation in those reds and the cause is not fully understood.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n
The reds in other North American tanager species (Scarlet, Summer and Hepatic tanagers) are derived metabolically from yellow pigments consumed in their diets but the pigment (rhodoxanthin) responsible for the red head of the male Western Tanager is acquired directly from the diet without modification.<\/p>\n
There’s also considerable variation in the reds of the male among individuals.\u00a0 They vary from light orange to deep scarlet and may be restricted to the forehead and throat\u00a0or they may cover most of the head (and anything in-between those extremes).\u00a0 The cause of that variation is not understood.<\/p>\n
Both of the\u00a0Western Tanagers\u00a0presented here were photographed\u00a0near the border of southwest Montana and Idaho earlier this summer.\u00a0 The red pigments of this male are less intense and slightly more orange…<\/p>\n
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![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/western-tanager-5844-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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\u00a01\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n than those of this male photographed a few weeks earlier.\u00a0 I’ve seen significantly more variation in other tanagers but don’t have photos of them.\u00a0\u00a0 Rhodoxanthin is a very uncommon pigment in birds, having been detected only in a few pigeon species, several cotingas (a family of Central Americana\u00a0passerines)\u00a0and a manakin (a small and unique group of tropical American birds).\u00a0 Tiny amounts have also been detected in Northern Cardinals and Cedar\u00a0Waxwings.<\/p>\n There also appears to be a geographic component to head color variations in male Western Tanagers.\u00a0 In most\u00a0males the throat is orange\u00a0and the color does not extend\u00a0beyond the throat but in birds\u00a0at the base of the eastern Rocky Mountains those\u00a0colors are sometimes bright, poppy red and extend down over the chest.<\/p>\n Forgive me, I sometimes get carried away with details but\u00a0in this case they do\u00a0intrigue me so I just let myself fly with it (even though I’ve touched on this subject in a previous post).<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n PS – Several readers have asked me to\u00a0keep them updated\u00a0on developments with my new camera, the Canon 7D Mark ll.\u00a0 There’s not much to report at this point as I didn’t get it until yesterday afternoon and the next several days will be largely devoted to a fairly intense learning curve.\u00a0 Hopefully the weather and light will cooperate so that I can spend some much-needed time with it in the field.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Male Western Tanagers are known for their red heads but there can be considerable variation in those reds and the cause is not fully understood.<\/p>\n