Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Western Tanager Homes



Every year a number of Western tanagers make their nests in the over-sized leaves of our banana trees. This year the bananas were sparse due to the need to thin them out and so the birds chose to nest in the giant bird-of-paradise leaves. They build stringy nests out of fibers from palm trees. They attach the nests so they hang down under the leaves. They are typically up too high in the trees to really observe the babies, but I always find nests in the garden after the first strong winds towards the end of summer.

1 comment:

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

That is really a pretty bird. I thought we had some here but then found out they were Bullocks Orioles instead. They are bright colored like your Tanagers.(-: They build weird nests too. They hang down like socks. Made from twine and hair etc. Very interesting!!!