Dan's Feathursday Feature: Scarlet Tanager

Methinks, alas, the Bard was not a birder.

I've searched Shakespeare's works (Google, of course), and he does occasionally make general reference to birds: "Her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing, and think it were not night." On occasion he even names specific types of birds, like owls or eagles: "But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, leaving no tract behind." But nowhere could I find him name a specific species, like the Tawny Owl or the Golden Eagle.

Or the Scarlet Tanager.

Don't blame Shakespeare. The Scarlet Tanager is a bird of the Americas. The New World had only been "discovered" shortly before Shakespeare's birth, and the settlement at Plymouth was established after he died. So he probably never saw even as much as a sketch of this striking scarlet bird. Nor would he have known that the Scarlet Tanager is actually yellow for most of its life. Only the mature male is bright scarlet, and only in the three to four months of the breeding season each year.

But, oh, how nobly the Scarlet Tanager would have served Juliet as she professed her love for Romeo: "Montague, Capulet; it matters not. What's in a name? That which we call a Scarlet Tanager by any other color would still the heart enrapture." Instead, Shakespeare went with his "rose-by-any-other-name" jingle, and Valentine's Day has never been the same.

Seriously, the male Scarlet Tanager in breeding plumage is a strikingly beautiful bird. But in my opinion, the soft yellow of the female, or of the male who's changed into winter plumage, is no less beautiful. I was lucky to spot a yellow male on my walk one mid-October morning. Maybe I would see the same bird again in the spring, wearing its robe of scarlet. Maybe not. Regardless, the words that Shakespeare scribed for Caesar's farewell seem appropriate, even if maybe a bit overly dramatic.

And whether we shall meet again I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take:
For ever, and for ever, farewell,
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why then, this parting was well made.

Shakespeare may have never met the Scarlet Tanager, but the Scarlet Tanager has met Shakespeare.

Dan's Feathursday Feature is a regular contribution to the COS blog featuring the thoughts, insights and pictures of Chicago birder, Dan Lory on birds of the Chicago region.