Hepatic Tanager

About the Hepatic Tanager

A tanager of the western mountains, the male Hepatic Tanager is a soft brick- or liver-red (the name comes from the Latin for liver), duller than the fire-engine Summer Tanager and set off by a distinctive gray cheek and a dark, stout bill. The female is a warm yellow with the same gray wash on the face.

Hepatic Tanagers move deliberately through the canopy of pine-oak woodland, gleaning insects and taking fruit, and sing a rich, robin-like warble with a burrier quality than their relatives.

In Texas they are warm-season breeders of the higher mountains of the Trans-Pecos, such as the Davis Mountains and the Chisos, arriving in spring to the cool pine-oak canyons and departing by fall.

A note from behind the lens: like other tanagers they favor the treetops, so patience and good light are essential. Watch for a bird dropping to a lower branch or a fruiting tree, and let soft mountain-morning light bring out that muted, dusky red.