OREGON RECORDS COMMITTEE Treesa Hertzel, Secretary [email protected]

1. REPORTED BY: Craig Miller PO Box 6376 Bend OR 97708 (541) 389-9115 [email protected]

2. Species Common and Scientific Name: Summer rubra

3. Number of Individuals, Sexes, Ages & Plumages: 1 male in breeding plumage

4. Location of Sighting: Pageant Park, Deschutes River, Bend

5. Date and Time of Sighting: 14 September 20, about 5:00 PM

6. Habitat: River’s edge park with deciduous trees and riparian vegetation along the river’s edge.

7. Description: Overall impression--a sometimes vocal, bright red . Size-- Appeared about American Robin size. There were no birds nearby to compare. Bare Parts—Bill grayish, somewhat thick for a tanager. Eyes black. Legs pale gray. Head and Neck—mostly uniform red, but a grayish tinge on lores, less so on the cheek. Upperparts--back and mantle mottled bright red, but a little less bright than the chest and abdomen. The top of the tail was red. Wings in flight—not observed. Underparts—bright red breast, flanks, abdomen, and undertail coverts – slightly brighter than the upperparts. The tail was red-tinged gray underneath. Vocalization – repeated two-note somewhat harsher than sound, but definite tanager.

8. Similar Species: Scarlet Tanager – ruled out by red, rather than black wings. Hepatic Tanager - the most difficult species to rule out. The red on the back and flanks rather than gray rules out this species. The lack of a dark eye line also rules it out. – ruled out by lack of conical bill, pointed crest and black facial patch.

9. Other Circumstances of the Observation: This bird had been seen previously for about two days at the same location. Hazy afternoon sunlight; first noticed by another observer, silent and in a different tree. It then flew to its usual haunt in a maple tree that had a hornet nest, upon which it appeared to feed. It became quite vocal which made it easy to locate.

10. Optical Equipment: Bausch & Lomb 10X42

11. Photographs? Yes

12. Previous Experience with this Species: Seen many times east of the Rockies.

13. Aids Used To Identify the Bird: The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2nd edition.

14. Other Observers Who Identified the Bird: Tom Crabtree, many others

14. This description was made from: ______notes made during observation ______notes made _immediately_ after observation ___X___ memory ___X__ I am positive of this identification

SUTA-2020-29 () 1st round voting December 6, 2020

Accepted: 9 Not Accepted: 0

ACCEPTED, VERIFIED see my description in the report

The photos of Craig Miller and Tom Crabtree are indisputably a Summer Tanager. Matt Cahill's could be a summer or possibly a scarlet or hepatic based on the photos, but his description adequately rules out scarlet tanager and probably hepatic too. It seems likely that the bird seen and photographed by Tom and Craig is the same bird that Matt found given the same location a day later. I'm a little puzzled by Matt's description of gray feathers on the belly and wings. I don't see any sign of gray on the belly in Craig or Tom's photos and I wouldn't describe the wings as showing much gray either. This discrepancy gives me some pause regarding Matt's report for this reason, but overall it seems very unlikely that it was a different bird.

Great documentation of this stunning, male Summer Tanager.

Photos and descriptions sufficient to tulle out similar tanager species.

This bird appears to have been present 13-27 September. I'm glad to see that Crabtree submitted a report for the end date, and I accept the bird as having been adequately documented through the final reported date.

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Very nicely photographed male Summer Tanager. Bill looks a bit on the large side, but despite the nice phoo Im no re Im comforable ring o aign a bpecie identity to this bird.

I suggest that the species e removed from the review list.

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No comments

The photos eliminate Scarlet Tanager, which would have black wings and Hepatic Tanager, which would have a dark bill as well as a gray-red cheek patch and a gray-red back.

Good description, identifiable photos.