Get the Western Tanager to Stay

Any day now, I expect this guy to show up and look longingly through the window of the sunroom at the blossoms on my wife's plants. He'll hang around the area for a day or two, then he'll fly off to find a better place to raise his kids.

Tanagers love fruit. If I could give this guy what he wants, I think he might stay. Last summer, I made a temporary jam feeder out of a Bugs Bunny cup:

 

It was hugely successful with the local population. This female Bullock's Oriole spent a lot of time there, as did my population of Black-Headed Grosbeaks. But aside from the fact that it was ugly, being basically a mess of tape, twigs and string, it was tedious to keep clean.

Today I'm going to go shopping for a few cases of strawberry jam. Maybe I can find something cheap at the dollar store. If I can find 200 plastic, 2-4 ounce jars of jam, that should get my feathered friends through the summer. And I'll have it ready before the Western Tanager shows up this time, so that he can feel like he's found a perfect place to raise his family. Then maybe in a few weeks I'll have some nice Western Tanager pictures to add to my collection (and put up here).

The idea is to put up a post outside with a hole drilled in it just the perfect size for a jar of strawberry jam. When they empty it (which can happen in a few hours), I'll replace it with another one and throw the old one away. No muss, no fuss.

I'll post pictures of my new feeder when I'm finished with it. If I can find my jam supply today, I should be able to have everything ready for the tanagers when they show up.