Female Scarlet Tanager
The female Scarlet Tanager (Thanks Ron Smith!) sings a song similar to the male's, but softer, and less harsh. When she is gathering nesting material, she sings in answer to the male's song but with nesting season over, neither sex is very vocal.
Scarlet Tanagers often play host to eggs of the Brown-headed Cowbird, particularly where the forest habitat has been fragmented. When a pair of tanagers notices a female cowbird approaching, they aggressively driver her away. However, if they don't notice, the cowbird gets rid of the tanager egg and replaces it with one of her own. The tanagers can't tell the difference, either before or after the egg hatches, and they raise the imposter along with the rest of their brood.
On their wintering grounds in South America, the Scarlet Tanagers join mixed species foraging flocks with flycatchers, antbirds, woodcreepers, and resident tropical tanagers.
White-breasted Nuthatch
These nuthatches are active, agile little birds with an appetite for insects and large, meaty seeds. They get their common name from their habit of jamming large nuts and acorns into tree bark, then whacking them with their sharp bill to "hatch" out the seed from the inside.
These nuthatches are normally territorial throughout the year, with pairs staying together. The male (shown here with the dark crown stripe) has to spend more time looking out for predators when he's alone than while he's with his mate. The female nuthatch has to put up with the male pushing her aside from foraging sites, so she spends more time looking around for him when he's around than when she's alone.
In winter, these nuthatches join foraging flocks led by chickadees or titmice, partly because it makes food easier to find and partly because more birds can keep an eye to for predators.
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