Hybrid Flame-colored x Western tanager (Piranga bidentata X Piranga ludoviciana), Miller Canyon, Cochise County

This male hybrid Flame-colored x Western Tanager was photographed by Dick Dionne on 26 April 2008 in Miller Canyon. 

Flame-colored Tanagers that have strayed north to Arizona have mated more than once with Western Tanagers.  The resulting hybrids present a difficult identification problem and have been reported most often in the Huachucas.  This bird has large white undertail spots that are characteristic of Flame-colored Tanager.  However, other characters of this bird are intermediate, especially the amount of orange on the breast and the streaking on the back.  The broad yellow wingbar is more like Western Tanager.  The observer also noted a yellow rump, which is a Western Tanager character. 

To illustrate the difficulty of judging photographs, two versions of the first photo are presented.  The first image is backlit and slightly underexposed making the colors look more saturated like a Flame-colored.  In the second photo, some exposure correction was applied in photoshop and now the bird looks more like a Western!

 

Original image:

 

Some exposure adjustment applied:

26 April 2008, photos by Dick Dionne

All photos are copyrighted© by photographer