I have had a young male Summer Tanager visiting the backyard lately.
Before long, he will be a full radiant red like his daddy, but for now, he is marbled and still has remnants of his mama’s golden tones.
Some may say he is a bit of a mottled mismatched mess, but I look at him, with his artist’s pallet appearance, and think, “How marbelous!”
I so hope he sticks around for the summer!
Backyard Bird Nerd 
Yes, definitely very cute.
He looks beautiful as he becomes mature. I love red and grey colour palette Kathy. What a blessing to have him visit
A blessing indeed. I’ve seen the female flitting about, but she hasn’t seen fit to pose for a picture yet!
Great shots and I agree with you, beautiful bird! I photograph Crossbills here, when they let me but, their colours can be confusing, youngsters are grey then start colouring up and there’s often a stage when I’m not sure if it’s a male or female but, they’re all beautiful š
I haven’t seen a Crossbill before so I popped over to your blog. They are quite lovely!
Aren’t they? They can be very obliging too šš
He looks amazing even now!!