664 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
near the middle. The bill characters correlated with nine primaries 
and a scaled tarsus are distinctive of the North American representatives 
of the family. Rictal bristles are well developed, the wings are long 
and pointed, and the tail moderate and emarginate. As the Tanagers 
are fruit and insect eaters, they are migratory in the United States. 
They inhabit woodland, nest in trees, and are no great songsters 
(Coues). 
LOUISIANA OR WESTERN TANAGER: Piranga ludoviciana (Wilson) 
Plate 71 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) G.2-6.9 inches, wing 3.7-3.8, tail 2.6-3, 
bill .6, tarsus .7-8. Female: Length (skins) 6.3-6.0 inches, wing 3.5-3.8, tail 
2.7-2.8, bill .6, tarsus .7-.8. Adult male in summer: Foreparts of head and neck 
red (varying from orange-yellow to crimson on head and usually paler on throat), 
hind-neck, posterior upperparts and underparts light yellow; hack, wings, and tail, 
black; wing coverts with broad yellow patches and narrow yellow or whitish bar, tertials 
(and sometimes tail feathers) tipped with white; under wing coverts yellow; iris 
brown, bill dull waxy yellowish, legs and feet bluish gray. Adult male in winter: 
Similar to summer male but head yellow (or but slightly tinged with red), color 
obscured on back of head and hind-neck with olive-green or dusky feather tips; 
back usually with yellowish feather margins; wings and tail with white or yellow 
margins. Adult female in summer: Forehead sometimes tinged with red; upperparts 
olive-green , back and scapulars usually grayish, rump and upper tail coverts yellow¬ 
ish; wings and tail grayish brown with olive-green edgings, wings with two distinct 
yellowish or one yellow and one white band; underparts mainly dull yellowish, under 
tail coverts light yellow. Young in Juvenal plumage: Dusky yellowish or brownish 
green, yellower below and obscurely streaked; wings and tail brown with two yellow¬ 
ish bars. 
Comparisons. —The two yellowish—or one yellow and one white—wing bars are 
diagnostic of the Western Tanager in any plumage. 
Range. —Breeds in Canadian and Transition Zones from southeastern Alaska, 
southwestern Mackenzie, and southwestern South Dakota south to high mountains 
of central-western Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, and Lower 
California (found in spring and summer); winters at Brownsville, Texas (rarely), 
and south from central Mexico through highlands to Guatemala; casual in migra 
tion in Wisconsin, New York, New England, and Louisiana. 
State Records. —The mountains of both northern and southern New Mexico 
are inhabited during the summer by the Western Tanager. In the north, in the 
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a specimen was taken, July 5, 1903, at Canoncita, 7,000 
feet, and a pair was seen about July 7, at Glorieta, 7,500 feet (Bailey); on July 16, 
1903, parents were still feeding young at 8,000 feet on the Pecos near Willis; the 
species was also seen July 19, at 8,700 feet, and a single bird on July 25, at 10,200 
feet, in the Upper Pecos mountains. It breeds in the Hondo region near Twining, 
where, at about 10,000 feet, on August 4,1904, a bob-tailed young was found with its 
parents (Bailey). [It is fairly common and well distributed over the Sangre de 
Cristo Range as high as 10,000 feet. On June 22, 1919, a pair was noted on the 
Little Rio Grande at about 7,400 feet, evidently near the nest; on June 24, several 
were seen 20 miles southeast of Taos at 10,000 feet. It was heard singing commonly 
about Cowles, July 10-18, from 8,000 to 10,000 feet (Ligon). In the Santa Fe region 
it is common in the mountains from 7,500 to 10,000 feet (Jensen).] In the western 
