Date: 9/30/25 5:15 am From: Maeve Kim <maevekim7...> Subject: [VTBIRD] tanager question
Good morning, fellow birders - Yesterday at the new-to-us Wolcott Family Nature Preserve in Colchester, I watched a yellow Scarlet Tanager for about two minutes. I thought it was an adult female rather than a nonbreeding male because the wings were gray rather than black. When I first spotted the bird, she (?) had what looked like a grub in her beak. Another similar-sized bird was nearby, but I didn’t get a good look at it. The first bird flew a few yards and the second bird followed. Unfortunately, they were both behind foliage then. But seconds later what I thought was the original bird reappeared, now without the grub. The “safe dates” from the last VT Breeding Bird Atlas lists 5/25-8/10 as breeding dates. Cornell says Scarlet Tanagers have one brood per season, and that parents feed their young up to two weeks after the young fledge. What do you all think? Is it possible that a tanager brood might fledge as late as mid-September, maybe if the first nest failed?
Birding - Always interesting!
Maeve Kim, Jericho Center
