![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/western-tanager-5253-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-tanager-5253-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMore of my favorite bird from my recent camping trip to Montana and Idaho.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/1000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The male tanager that hung around my campsite spent much of his time in the aspen trees hawking insects out of the air flycatcher style and he was very good at it. But he also used his elevated perches as lookouts to search for insects on the ground below him and that’s how he spotted and then captured this beetle.<\/p>\n He seemed to spend more time “tenderizing” his food than most birds do and that’s what he’s doing here which explains why the beetle is so mashed up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here’s a cleaner shot of him on another of his favorite perches, the dead stump in the open part of the clearing but even here he has bug bits on his bill. I like this side view and his slightly cocked head against the mostly dark spring-green background.<\/p>\n Since I returned home ten days ago this area near the Montana\/Idaho border has had pretty severe weather for early summer, including significant amounts of snow. It’s nesting season for tanagers so I hope they’re not already feeding chicks.<\/p>\n Finding enough insects in the snow to keep as many as five hungry chicks satisfied wouldn’t be easy.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More of my favorite bird from my recent camping trip to Montana and Idaho.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/western-tanager-5173-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-tanager-5173-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n