A friend of mine has recently had an sadly interesting experience with
Western Tanagers in Yakima. He lives west of Yakima on the hill overlooking
the west end of the valley surrounded by bits a poor shrub steppe and a few
orchards.

Last week five female or immature tanagers flew into a window on the south
side of his house. Three were killed and two were stunned. He laid the two
stunned ones on his platform bird feeder and within twenty minutes they
revived and flew away. He laid the dead birds under a bush nearby to
decompose naturally.

It is puzzling as to why the tanagers would be migrating in this area and
why they would pick this particular window to attack. My friend does have
quite a lot of quacking aspen in his yard but no large deciduous or
evergreen trees.

In the residential areas of Yakima we frequently have migrating Western
Tanagers in the spring and fall. They are usually found in quite large
trees. I guess this is just another mystery of the world of birds.

Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA


osprey at nwinfo dot net