The female Western Tanager reported by Mike Green is in fact the THIRD report
of Western Tanager from this NE Portland neighborhood in recent weeks:
* 13 March - 27 blocks ESE of Irving Park
* 25 March - at Irving Park
* 26 March - 13 blocks E of Irving Park
This is also the same neighborhood where a female Summer Tanager was seen last
fall (7 Nov., half a block W of Irving Park).
So… Are we discovering evidence for an odd and hitherto-undescribed "Irving
Park Tanager Vortex”? Does a close reading of the scientific literature in
fact mention, among ENSO, PDO, and many other confusing geophysical acronyms,
the periodic wintertime occurrence of a little-undestood “IPTV" centered in NE
Portland once every 77 years?
Well, perhaps. But more likely there has been one single Western Tanager seen
three times wandering across at least 27 residential blocks. The 3/25 observer
described seeing a “slight pink face” but the 3/13 and 3/26 observers did not
note any non-yellow facial color, leading to the possibility that there are
multiple birds. However, facial blush on female tanagers can be
lighting-and-angle dependent and hard to see, and is pretty subjective as field
marks go.
More telling is to back up and view things in context. Mapping eBird reports
from the current year shows that there have been only 5 other reports (on
eBird, at least) of Western Tanager since January 1st in the entire Pacific NW
north of Ft. Bragg, CA. So our Irving Park WETA is indeed someone special.
I have to admit, though, the Summer Tanager link still has me a bit freaked
out, and I’m not sure I’m quite ready to fully abandon the idea of a mysterious
IPTV.
Jay Withgott
Portland
From: Mike Green <mtgbirds@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:mtgbirds@xxxxxxxxx>>
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2019 18:54:51 -0700
Subject: [obol] WETA in NE Portland
I saw a Western Tanager at about 6:15pm today on NE 21st just south of NE
Siskiyou, Portland. This female-plumaged bird was quite vocal, and allowed
close enough approach for me to see wing bars, yellowish face and
underparts, olive back. Same bird as in Irving Park a day or two ago?
eBird post here: https://ebird.org/pnw/view/checklist/S54263357 ;
<https://ebird.org/pnw/view/checklist/S54263357>
