Birdland: Color Of Summer

The striking strawberry-colored male Summer Tanager is the only completely red bird in North America. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the Summer Tanager as “a bee and wasp specialist.” The birds catch the insects while in flight and then kill them by beating them against a branch. Before chowing down, they rub the wasp on the branch to remove its stinger. After gorging on insects and berries all summer, Summer Tanagers migrate thousands of miles to South America for the winter, returning to Colorado in the spring. Photo by Mark Silverstein