Novasola Tanager
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Novasola
Tanager, Piranga bryophila
L 17-19 cm, WS 25-30 cm, Family: Cardinalidae
IUCN Conservation Status: Least concern (LC)
Description:
Small
to medium sized, stocky songbird with medium-length notched tail, heavy bill,
and large head. Breeding males unmistakable, brilliantly colored with bright
red head, undersides, and wingbars, with black back, wings, and tail. Females
lack red, instead olive green on head and undersides, and lighter brownish
upperparts. In winter males will appear green like females and juveniles.
Voice:
Song
is a short, burry collection of multiple short up-and-down syllables, lasting
2-3 seconds, often repeated. Song similar to that of Halley’s Robin, but
shorter and raspier, more gargled. Most common calls are a sharp, fast triplet wit-a-rick.
Range and Habitat:
Range
encompasses most of Novasola excluding the interior steppe. Woodland birds,
they breed in most forest ecosystems, including temperate rainforest, conifer,
mixed, and deciduous forests, dry pine and juniper stands, oak savannah, and on
rare occasions scrubland. Will also use man-made habitats like yards and wooded
parks, and will occasionally visit feeders, especially just after and prior to
migration. Winters off island in Mexico and Central America. Arrives in
Novasola in late spring and begins fall migration in later summer.
Discussion:
One
of the most stunning and dazzling songbirds on Novasola, the amazingly vivid
Novasola Tanager brings an intense splash of color to the island’s summer
woodlands. Despite the male’s brilliant red coloration and frequent singing,
tanagers can often be hard to spot because of their unwillingness to leave the
upper canopy. Regardless, the birds are common throughout Novasolan forests in
the early summer and are beloved by many nature enthusiasts.
Though
they can be found in most forests, Novasola Tanagers prefer more open forests
and woodlands or forests with many gaps in the canopy into which males will
sing loudly. During breeding males will sing from high perches near the tops of
trees often, which makes them difficult to see but easy to hear. Females will
build the nest and incubate eggs, and the male will remain nearby and bring her
food. Both sexes will defend the nest and territory aggressively. A mated pair
rarely spend any time apart until migration when they separate, but they will
often pair with the same individuals year after year if successful at raising
broods. Females will build nests exclusively out of moss and lichen, forming a
soft cup near open canopy, usually in Coopers-fir trees. This reliance on
collecting moss is where the species name bryophila comes from, which in
Latin means “moss lover”.
When
not singing, defending the nest, or incubating, Novasola Tanagers forage through
the canopy searching through leaves, needles, twigs, and flowers. Their summer
diets consist mostly of invertabrates like caterpillars, ants, wasps, beetles,
dragonflies, and scale insects, and occasional berries. During winter and
migration fruits make up the majority of their diets, especially berries like
cherries, serviceberry, raspberries, and fruits from madrone and grapes from
vineyards. They will also eat seeds on occasion, especially from bird feeders.
Novasola
Tanagers have seen population declines across the state like most endemic
birds, but because of their preference for open forests and edge habitat they
are faring much better than many other forest birds which require large areas
of dense forest. What’s more, research is showing more Novasola Tanagers are breeding
off the island in British Columbia, now commonly seen there during the breeding
season as both vagrants and established populations, where they are hybridizing
with the closely related Western Tanager.
The
simple but eye-catching colors of the male Novasola Tanager rival any other native
songbird for the title of most vibrant, and their songs are ubiquitous in early
summer. Despite their short breeding season on Novasola, Tanagers are
incredibly popular birds among residents, many of whom eagerly wait through the
winter for their next chance to find the bird. In 2007 there was a well-publicized,
but unsuccessful, attempt to make the tanager Novasola’s state bird, as people
thought it better represented the state than the current choice, the Black
Crane, because the tanager’s range encompassed more of the state, it is more
common, the word Novasola is in its name, and its color reminded people of the
state flag. Despite the campaign failing, many people heavily associate the
Novasola Tanager with the state, and many organizations use the tanager as a symbol
or mascot, including the Novasola Audubon Society.
“I
have observed in great numbers the Tanager in those great forests along the
banks of the Chidkayook just as I had in the western foothills of the
Arrowheads. Their numbers here in the west seem, through my travels thus far,
to greatly exceed their eastern populations, myself having witnessed as many of
the bird in one month of travel through the Angelics as I had during the
entirety of the 1902 expedition east. In the valleys of the Pollux and Castor the
Tanager is equally common, but only for a shorter time, as they much sooner
must begin their northward migration off island, with birds in Novasola’s far
south migrating as soon as August.” – Manual to Novasolan Birds, 1914
“Another
of the changes in local soundtrack is the addition of the Tanager’s song, one
which I am only marginally familiar. I can recall hearing this song during last
summer’s expedition, though these observations were few and brief. Here in this
forest, be it a difference in habitat or in season, the Tanager’s is one of the
more common voices.” – Expedition log, June 12, 1903
“On
my return to camp I was greeted with that familiar calling of the Tanager. A pair
of the birds were busying themselves in the foliage of a Coopers-fir mere feet
from the rock I soon chose as my perch from which to observe them. The female
was intent on searching every branch of the fir, but I soon saw she was not searching
the bark or leaves for food as I would expect, but instead hunting for moss.
Upon each discovery, she would pick the green from the branch and fly off,
leaving her partner to soon after follow without question. After a few minutes
she would return, with her mate in tow, to continue the hunt. When she had
exhausted the best greenery from the fir, she flew to the ground and began
ripping moss from the forest floor.
Certainly
the collection she is forming will go into nest construction, and this
encounter has granted me a gift of hindsight in regards to the nest I had found
last week, itself a soft bowl of mosses which fell, presumably, from another
coopers-fir. There is little doubt in my mind after observing these Tanagers
that the earlier nest was constructed also by the Tanager.” – Expedition log,
July 6, 1903
“It
was one evening, during my time in the Corps, I brought my specimen back to
camp for study when to my surprise many of my fellow Corpsmen displayed a
marked, and wholly uncharacteristic, interest in my quarry. In this moment I
understood a ubiquitous truth: the male Tanager’s marvelous plumage is to all
men astounding and begs every soul to take pause, such that they might appear
to question the value of even gold. The Tanager is universally remarkable.” – Native
Birds of Novasola, 1912