The most beautiful bird in Seattle

Western Tanager (Breeding Male)

No Photoshop is needed to touch up this lovely creature. One morning last week I caught a glimpse of yellow and red as I was working at my desk, and a Western Tanager landed right outside on the holly tree. They arrive in the Northwest for just a few months in the summer, so it's a special treat to actually see one in the city.

The Western Tanager breeds farther north than any member of its tropical family, right up into the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Here's an interesting fact: the red color in the face of the Western Tanager is rhodoxanthin, a pigment rarely seen in birds. It's acquired from insects in the diet that presumably get the pigment themselves from plants.

On June 6, 1806, Capt. Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition "discovered" the Western Tanager in Idaho.