ML480032901

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Initially spotted foraging in the canopy by a member of thee group and ID’d as an oriole. I came over and located the bird flying and said it was a tanager but immediately mentioned that didn’t look right, and appeared to be a Scarlet Tanager. The bird was olive-yellow below, and dingier on the head and upper neck. It’s bill appeared to be a mix of darker with some pink-orange tones on the lower mandible. The most notable feature were the dark wings lacking any wing bars. Initially I called the bird a female or fall male, but was fairly certain it was a male in basic since the wings were fairly dark. It remained high in the canopy feeding mostly out of view. I caught a glimpse of it flying to an edge so moved to get photos when it took flight again and made a bee-line away form the migrant trap towards a patch of trees across I-80. I quickly snapped a handful of shots as it flew away. The camera was set for shooting into the canopy form below, so everything was washed out (the bill is almost completely invisible), but I caught a couple frames with its wings down showing the lack of wing bars. This appears to be the first record for Elko county and while on the early side of fall vagrants, it is well within the window of late July - October sightings in the west.

Technical information

Dimensions

2000 pixels x 1296 pixels

Original file size

46.48 KB