Summer Tanager, Piranga rubra
Summer Tanager, male, 4/15/08, Boy Scout Woods, High Island, TX
I shot this through an imperfectly transparent window in a blind, hence the gray discolorations. Summer Tanagers, like the other North American "tanagers" of genus Piranga, have been recently determined to be more closely related to the cardinalids (Cardinals, Black-headed and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Indigo and Lazuli Buntings) than to the true tanagers of Central and South America.
Summer Tanager, male, 4/23/09, San Pedro River Inn, Hereford, AZ
Summer Tanager, male, 4/23/09, San Pedro River Inn, Hereford, AZ
Summer Tanager, first summer male with mulberry, 4/15/08, Boy Scout Woods, High Island, TX
Summer Tanager, male, 8/23/08, Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz Co
Summer Tanagers are rare in Northern California; this one at a popular birding spot in Santa Cruz attracted lots of attention in September 2008.
Summer Tanager, male, 8/23/08, Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz Co