Tanager Food

What's a tanager, Pitter? Around here, papaya is definitely too expensive to feed it to the birds. And you don't get ripe papayas anyway...

Tanagers are fruit eating birds and the males are often very colorfull. There are four native US species. The Scarlet Tanager with brilliant crimson body and velvet black wings is often seen on greeting cards and other knick-knacks. However here in Colombia there are 126!

Thanks Pitter!

Have you ever tried putting out grape jelly? Here in CT it's supposed to be great for attracting fruit-loving birds, particularly orioles.

Speaking of birds: I went over to a friend's house the other day and when I walked in he was eating the remains of a rather large bird. I asked him, "Cletus, what the hell you eatin' there?"

Cletus wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, "Bald Eagle."

"Bald Eagle!" I said in horror, "You can't eat them."

"Why not?" Cletus asked.

"Because they are an endangered species", I told him.

"Well, I've been eating them for years." he said.

"Cletus, just out of curiosity, what do they taste like?", I asked.

Cletus leaned back in his chair and said, "Kinda hard to describe. I guess it kinda tastes like a cross between a Whooping Crane and a Trumpeter Swan."

Hmm, a taste for endangered birds could certainly fowl up your life real quick..