This is not unusual behavior, tanagers love bees. This can be a there downfall
however. We have a male Summer Tanager specimen in the collection from the
Green Bay Wildlife Sanctuary obtained May 1980, that was killed by honeybees.
The bird was observed hunting bees by their hives, so someone who was bird
banding out there at the time put a net between the hives and trees hoping to
net the tanager. They were keeping watch on the net, but apparently missed for
about twenty minutes. The tanager was dead after being netted, it was
immediately attacked by bees and was unable to escape or defend its self. We
found something like 16 stingers in the bird. When a honeybee stings, the
stinger is pulled out of the body as is a pheromone chemical, which attracts
other bees to the target area. The tanager probably had some around the head
too as it was chopping on bees. Unfortunate adventurer for tanager and bander
as well!!
Tom Erdman, Green Bay
-----Original Message-----
From: wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of KAREN JOHNSON
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2016 1:58 PM
To: Wisconsin Bird Network <Wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [wisb] Summer Tanager - unusual behavior
The Summer Tanager caught and ate 5 bees from the hive while I was there!
Also a Cooper's Hawk flew in and disrupted all of the feeder birds except one
which it caught by chasing it on the ground next to the building (it rammed it
into the window)! I could not tell which species it caught but it was NOT the
Summer Tanager (thank goodness!). Song birds beware...
--
Karen Johnson
Milwaukee, WI
BayView Area
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