Photographs of Western Tanagers and the birds on the Arizona desert and other parts of the state

Flame-colored Tanager

birdfotos.com

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To learn more click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame-colored_Tanager

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Approximately 7 inches head to tail. A flame-orange color head breast and under parts. Wings black with 2 white wing bars. Back is black with white streaks. Also note the darker orangish patch on its cheeks or below and behind the eye. This bird was very vocal with a Western Tanager very loud chirp. I could always here it coming from quite away off into the area where I photographed it.

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IN SEARCH OF THE GREAT AND BEAUTIFUL

Having seen on the Internet that the bird was being seen in the Santa Rita Mountains in the Coronado National Forest and in an area called Madera Canyon. Packing enough supplies for a few days I headed off to Madera Canyon just south and west of Green Valley Arizona. In case you don't know where this is, I took I-10 southeast to Tucson, then I-19 south for approx. 30 miles to Green Valley. At exit #63 the 3rd Green Valley exit marked Continental Road I turned off the Interstate and made a left turn onto Continental road next turning right at the Madera Canyon Recreation area sign. From there it's approx. 12 miles. There are two Lodges in the canyon. The Santa Rite Lodge and Madera Kubo Lodges a little farther up the canyon. I was lucky enough to get a very nice cabin at the Madera Kubo Lodge.

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The road up the canyon.

The road up the canyon is all hard surfaced.

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My cabin.

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Just out side my back door.

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The store next to my cabin with a rental unit above it.

Chuck full of souvenirs and great snack goodies.

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A view out behind the cabins.

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There were several other cabins across the road.

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Birders that were not staying at the lodge but had parked their
cars down below and walked up to try and get a glimpses of the Tanager.

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Number 1 arrow is pointing to the tree where the Tanager generally
came to peck at the oranges the lodge owners put out every day.

The tri-pod and chair next to the #1 arrow is where I took most of the fotos from.

Number 2 arrow is pointing to signs put up by the owners.
For the most part the birders did read them and act accordingly.

They only allowed the paying guess that lodged there to go onto their property across the road to view the Tanager.

It didn't always work. Many times the bird watcher would just walk on in.

There's always a few jerks in every crowd I guess.

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These first images will be of the male Flame-colored Tanager.

Well; I guess I had better get back to my camera set up or I'll miss the good photos.

And just as I sat down behind my camera it flew in.

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I had no sooner clicked the camera shutter and it flew off. I can see this is going to be a very skittish bird to photograph.

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None of these images have been cropped or altered in any way.
They are straight out of the camera unaltered.

The only thing I may do from time to time is change lenses.

In just a few minutes it flew back in to the tree but would stay in the cover of the leaves.
I am quite sure it could see me sitting there with my camera equipment even though I tried not to move.

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As you can see I have increased the focal length of the lens I am using.
A 7 inch bird at about 60 to 70 feet is quite a chore to photograph.

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So you will under stand why the images keep changing size,
I am using two cameras. One with a 60 to 400 mm lens,
and one with a 500 mm lens with a 1.4 tele-converter attached to it.

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Murphys law.
The Tanager flew to the ground in front of me but I did not have my good tele-photo lens on the camera.
In all the 3 days I was there I never saw it fly to ground other this one time.

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The Tanager didn't just come to this tree with out a very good reason.
So, I guess I had better show you why it kept flying to this certain tree.