Flame-colored Tanager (Piranga bidentata)

This male Flame-colored Tanager has been present in Madera Canyon every spring/summer in Madera Canyon since 2002 for the last 8 years.  I got my lucky chance to see this beautiful bird on April 9th, 2010.  It has mated with female Western Tanagers on several occasions, never with a female Flame-colored.

On April 9th, many other lucky birders and I got to see this bird perched with open views for about 45 minutes, where the bird sang continuously, and was the highlight of my trip.  It's hangout spot is the Madera Kubo Bread and Breakfast, where I sometimes comes to the bird feeders at the resort on a regular basis, and oddly when I was there, it didn't come to the bird feeders once.  Seeing it further down the road was much more awesome to me, more of a in the wild encounter.