The Western Tanager is about the size of a Robin, 6-1/2 inches long. The male is bright yellow with a red head, black wings and tail and yellow and white wing bars. The female is yellow with greenish yellow above and black wings and tail.

This bird prefers open coniferous forests containing Douglas fir, spruce, pine and aspen and is found from Alaska to Mexico, western North America. It winters in Mexico and South America.

It eats fruit and insects. The female western tanager lays three to five speckled bluish green eggs in a cup-shaped nest made of woven bark, grass and weeds. The nest is placed in the fork of a tree. The incubation period is two weeks. Both parents tend the chicks.

The western tanager is a long-distance migrator. Every year is travels between its wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America to its breeding grounds in western North America.

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Order: Passeriformes | Family: Thraupidae | Species: Piranga ludoviciana

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