Bee eater

We often think of the male cardinal as our red bird, but there is another songbird in our woods whose feathers are all red. It's the male summer tanager.

The summer tanager migrates south for winter, going to Central America and northern parts of South America.

Some of the things summer tanagers eat include mulberries, blackberries, spiders, ants, cicadas, wasps and bees.

I was lucky to spot this particular bird as it sat on a cypress tree limb.

It was about 40 feet up in the tree. I watched it fly up toward what looked like a squirrel den hole and then return to the limb.

Moving closer, I could hear buzzing bees and realized the den was being used by honey bees.

The bird was catching bees on the wing and eating them.

Each time it would fly up and catch a bee, it would return to the limb and bash the bee on the limb a few times before eating it.

I suppose this action was to disengage the bee's stinger.

I watched the red bird catch and eat five honeybees before it flew away into the woods.