As the light hits this male Scarlet Tanager…
Too much light in this case. That’s a ground Yellowjacket, one of the Vespula wasps.
A female, hunting in the same area. Perching at eye-level or even below, looking all around. Zipping after Hymenoptera. The male virtually crash-landed getting his prey.
Piranga olivacea is actually named for the female: olivacea means “olive-colored.” Choate’s Dictionary of American Bird Names says this probably because the Summer Tanager was named for the color red: P. rubra. The genus name Piranga seems to come from a native South American word “for some kind of bird.” As does “Tanager,” from tangara.
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This work by Matthew Wills is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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