When:

Who:

Where:

County:

Location:

Exact Site:
Haverford College

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For older records, view original documentation here.

How Many:

Description:
Entering records from old notebooks, I came across this entry. Comments copied from notebook: "tanager with yellow lower mandible, very pale, grayish back w/wing bars, looked chunky, only a little yellow on breast, belly and flanks whitish, was low on ground and in bushes, when it hopped up from ground I was thinking vireo but was surprised to find it [not] a vireo when I looked at it". Comments from 2/24/2024 when this record was entered: The word "not" was missing from my notebook entry but clearly should have been there. I'm not sure why I did not ID this bird to species at the time since the description perfectly matches Western Tanager. I guess I just must have assumed it was not possible and let it go at that. I was busy tending a toddler at this time in my life, so birds were not front and center.

Behavior:
Based on comments: bird was foraging low, on the ground, and in bushes. This is reasonable for a Western Tanager.

Separation from similar species:
Wing bars eliminate Scarlet Tanager, as well as the note that it only had a "little yellow on breast." "Grayish back w/wing bars" must have stood out as contrasting with neck and rump. Since my notes indicate I was thinking vireo: those with wing bars could be white-eyed, yellow-throated, and blue-headed, but in any of those cases I would have noted a facial pattern with some kind of spectacles, which clearly did not exist. "Pale" with "only a little yellow on breast" is a further strike against yellow-throated. Yellow lower mandible is good for Western Tanager, not vireos.

Discussion:
As noted above: why I did not identify this bird at the time and report it then is unknown . . . except I was busy being a mother and not concerned with bird records. Although I was keeping a near-daily bird log, it was incomplete and generally only noted unusual birds or interesting behaviors. As of 2003, I would have only seen Western Tanager a couple of times when in the southwest, and probably was not thinking about strays back East. They are much more commonly reported in the East now. When I came across this record, I looked at PORC data and found that Delaware County does not have an accepted WETA report -- which is part of the reason it is important to submit this one. Also, I checked eBird to see the pattern of WETA vagrancy in fall, in case 2003 was a particularly good year for them. (It was not.) Since most people have not entered historical data, it is difficult to know what might have been if only those individuals that made it to record committees are showing up on the map. There are other fall records from the 2000s, but not as many records as now show up with the ease of eBird data entry.

How positive are you about the identification:
Identification seems pretty straightforward in retrospect. Everything in the notes aligns perfectly with Western Tanager and not with any other species. Yes, I am positive of my ID.

References:

During the observation:
?

After the observation:
Sibley Guide; eBird check of WETA reports and dates; PORC data on WETA

Media: