Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager (PIRANGA RUBRA) 1950 edition Audubon print, with commentary on the reverse by Roger Tory Peterson. Printed in the USA, slightly larger than 9"x11". Rescued from a church bazaar, the page has a slight yellow patina, to be expected after 60 years.

According to Peterson: “In the South there are two “red-birds”: the “winter red-bird” (the cardinal), which remains all year, and the “summer red-bird,” shown here. The only two birds in the eastern states that are ALL red, they are easily recognized, for one has a crest, the other has not… In Latin America four hundred species of tanagers, garbed in vivid shades of red, blue and yellow, vie with the parrots and trogons in making the tropics gay. Why, out of all this gorgeous galaxy, only two tanagers should be adventurous enough to cross the Gulf of Mexico is one of the many mysteries of migration.”