ML311075321

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

**RARE; first Knox County record on eBird. Continuing from the first week of February when Holly Anderson observed the bird at her feeder | First seen at 3:30 in a stand of cedars across from 45 Annis Road, sunning and having a fun preen session in the afternoon glow after seemingly taking a bath earlier. Brisk day for a dip. The tanager remained until the shade reached their perch and dropped behind the cedars, shortly before Eddy, Kate, Robin, and Linda showed up. We were unable to relocate the bird in the fading light. Lots of feeders and nice habitat around. Similar in size to a cardinal, with a shorter tail. Typical Piranga bill shape; thick at the base, tapering and drooping slightly to a sharp tip. The upper mandible is dusky charcoal, fading to a light orange lower mandible. There is a medial tooth on the upper mandible, giving the look of a single serration. Dark eye, with faint pale yellow eyering. Quite a bright yellow-green head (darker olive auriculars), breast, belly, undertail coverts, and rump. Some mottled gray in the flanks. Brown-gray mantle without noticeable spots or streaking. Two obvious wingbars; buffy yellow median coverts with black bases barely peeking through and white-tipped greater coverts. Deep olive green tail. I have very little experience with female/first-winter male WETA and with how much individual variation there is in this species I'm currently uncertain of the age/sex of this individual. That's a question for Louis.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 6s

Lens

iPhone 6s back camera 4.15mm f/2.2

ISO

25

Focal length

4.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/2.2

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

703 pixels x 937 pixels

Original file size

286.68 KB