A Chat With a Tanager

And the Chat, itself, is a special bird

Summertime in the desert brings many new birds to our area. Riparian areas near desert oases, rivers and canyons from the desert and up into the mountains, attract special birds. The Summer Tanager is one of our summer visitors and is the only completely red bird in North America. That red color contrasts wonderfully against the thick green of a riparian corridor.

The range map for Summer Tanagers shows how present this species is across the eastern and southern states. As always, I get these range maps from Cornell’s AllAboutBirds webpage.

I saw this Summer Tanager at a spot along the Santa Cruz River. The river once flowed year round with water from natural springs and mountain runoff. In the 1900’s, increased pumping of surface water and groundwater combined to dry up the river. Now, through increased conservation efforts, water is flowing regularly again in parts of the river. A friend of mine and I like to go to one part of the river between Nogales and Green Valley, pull up chairs, and then sit and wait for hours for birds to come to the river to drink or bathe.

The day I saw this bird, we sat for two hours. We did see this male fly in and out of the area. Most of the time we just saw a flash of red. Once or twice, it stopped in the open allowing us to get good looks. There was a yellowish female flitting around also, but the male was much more present.

At one point he landed on the ground and came close to the water. Although we were watching from a distance, he was very aware of our presence and decided not to risk coming to the water to drink in this spot.

Another spectacular summer visitor is the Yellow-breasted Chat. They, too, are found in riparian areas. Unlike Summer Tanagers, the Chat is much harder to see. They are very skulky birds. Most of the time you know Chats are around because the males sing their songs over and over again from somewhere inside the brush. We heard the Chats throughout our two hour stay, but only got one very clean look at one bird. This Chat came down to the river to drink and to bathe.

You can listen to the large repertoire of songs of the Yellow-breasted Chats at AllAboutBirds while you look at their range map.

The Chat might have been 10-15 yards away from us and it came to the river in a thickly vegetated area. AllAboutBirds describe the Yellow-breasted Chats as having “ a bright yellow breast and bold face markings. The face is gray, with a white eyering that connects to the bill, forming ‘spectacles.’ They also have a white malar or mustache stripe bordering the cheek. The lower belly is white.” Males and females look identical but the males have black between the eyes and its bill, where in females that spot is gray.

The Chat took some drinks but then began to clean itself. Nothing like a good bath to help maintain healthy plumage.

The Chat moved forward only a few feet during this time along the river bank. It seemed to be aware of our presence but we never flinched and the only sound we made were the clicks from our camera’s shutters. It continued its morning routine.

Yellow-breasted Chats are songbirds. You can hear them in this Birdnote piece on this warbler.

During the two hours we were there, when we weren’t seeing birds we could hear a variety of bird songs from the thick riparian area. Sitting by a slowly running creek in the afternoon is a nice way to spend a few hours on a hot afternoon in May. The surprise of getting nice looks of a Summer Tanager and a Yellow-breasted Chat made it an even better day!!