
April 18, 2025
The word “tanager” should be a color. Not a word describing various brightly plumaged, conspicuous birds found in neotropical forests of Central and South America. Or at least the meaning of the word should include both the color and the bird. Like “tangerine” is both a fruit and a hue.
Like this morning’s male hepatic tanager, materializing from the vibrant foliage of the chokecherry that was so much more than a bird.
Color manifested as a thing with feathers.
Since the meaning of tanager has been lost, I’ll believe what I want. Apparently, the term comes from a Portuguese word, “tangara,” which comes from the Tupi language of Brazil that refers to “a bird name of uncertain meaning.” The French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson popularized the name in 1760 by introducing the genus Tangara for the paradise tanager (Tangara chilensis).
The paradise tanager, as you can imagine, is colored like a rainbow.

This morning’s “liver-hued” hepatic tanager is the first of four tanagers that will visit the yard this summer. Here are the others we should expect during this season of color.



Thanks for sharing this amazing yard with me! Still more tanagers and orioles and warblers to come!
The Flame-colored!! What a character!
“The word “tanager” should be a color”.
A musical note too, maybe even a feeling, of joy.
They are all stunning photographs. And we have the pleasure of seeing the brilliant colors of the Scarlet Tanager, bright red orange with jet black wings. I hear that the Summer Tanager has been known to visit Southern VT, but not prevalent. How incredible to be able to see so many .
Now that the cabin is finished, can you see most of the yard from the big burgundy recliner ?