This is a photograph of an adult male Hepatic Tanager. This bird was a messenger from Spirit letting me know the time was near that my father would be leaving his physical body behind.

You see, my colleague and friend, Marie, and I were walking back to work after grabbing lunch at the Subway sandwich shop around the corner. It was Wednesday, October 27, 2010, and my father had just begun hospice care at home after making the difficult decision to stop dialysis, since he no longer had the physical strength to walk.

My father had undergone a successful liver transplant in 1992, which was needed after contracting hepatitis B, an infection of the liver which he acquired while managing a blood bank facility. Although the anti-rejection medications required after the transplant created a new set of health challenges for my father, he did well with the transplant.

Maria and I were just about to the end of the block, where our office building was located, and in the Eucalyptus tree on the east side of the building we spotted a bright red bird. It was flying out of the tree, catching insects, and then flying back into the tree. We were both excited and awestruck by the bird. I told Maria that she was going to have to go back to work without me because I was going home to fetch my camera! Maria told me she did not think the bird would wait around for me, but I told her I had to try. It took me about 20 minutes to drive home and come back and sure enough the bird was still flying in and out of the tree when I parked my car. I was ecstatic! I was using my Leica camera, and although it had a 35mm to 420mm lens, the bird was hanging out at the top of the 70 foot tree! I did my best with the equipment I had, and started clicking away.

When I went into the office, Maria had already been doing some bird research on red birds and came up with two options. It was either a Summer Tanager or a Hepatic Tanager, but neither bird species was native to Southern California. The Summer Tanager is the only completely red bird in North America, while the Hepatic Tanager is named for the coloration of the males which resembles liver-red. It was a Gobsmack moment. I had never heard of either bird (I was still a novice birder) and when we compared internet photographs, to my photographs, it was indeed a Hepatic Tanager.

Knowing I had seen and documented a rare bird for my area, I sent an e-mail to the moderator of LACoBirds, which is an online discussion group for reporting wild birds and discussing birdwatching in Los Angeles County. I had often used this group as a resource to find out what rare birds had been recently sighted and where I could photograph them. The moderator responded: “A Hepatic Tanager is extremely rare in California (more likely a Summer Tanager, but still worth your posting), so please include details and/or post the photos with this post.” I sent off a photograph, with location details, and received this reply: “Terri, This is GREAT. I took the liberty of posting the sighting, location, and photo to the group, since this bird is so rare I didn't want any more time to elapse with a back-and-forth. Hope you don't mind. There are many people who will want to know about this spectacular sighting, and will look for it ASAP.”

To this day, I have not seen another Hepatic Tanager. I am eternally grateful to Spirit for sending me this rare and beautiful messenger.

Hepatic TanagerTanagerred birdrare bird for Los Angeles