Western Tanager male
Western Tanagers are among the most tropical-looking of our summer visitors and among my favourite birds. Their bright plumage can be surprisingly hard to see when they are feeding young or keeping a low profile. These birds are unexpectedly abundant and can often be found in leafy city parks and gardens, mixed, deciduous and conifer forest and even in sagebrush during migration.
(Move mouse over images below to enlarge and/or see captions).
Below are more summer visitors. Lazuli Buntings are another tropical-looking species, with bright electric blue heads, a wash of pale salmon pink over the upper breast and clean white underparts. They like dry hillsides dotted with wild rose bushes and other native shrubs.
Below is (left) a Lark Sparrow, and (right) a Yellow-breasted Chat. Rarer than any of the other birds on this page, they breed mostly in the south Okanagan but climate change seems to be causing their range to expand northwards. Lark Sparrows like dry sagebrush or grassland habitat while chats will nest in dense bushes along water courses.
(Move mouse over images below to enlarge and/or see captions).
Below are more summer visitors. Lazuli Buntings are another tropical-looking species, with bright electric blue heads, a wash of pale salmon pink over the upper breast and clean white underparts. They like dry hillsides dotted with wild rose bushes and other native shrubs.
Below is (left) a Lark Sparrow, and (right) a Yellow-breasted Chat. Rarer than any of the other birds on this page, they breed mostly in the south Okanagan but climate change seems to be causing their range to expand northwards. Lark Sparrows like dry sagebrush or grassland habitat while chats will nest in dense bushes along water courses.
Horned Grebe in breeding plumage