TANAGERS

Scarlet Tanager

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Piranga olivacea

The Scarlet Tanager is a medium-sized American songbird. Until recently, it was placed in the tanager family, but other members of its genus and it are now classified as belonging to the cardinal family.

The Scarlet Tanagers are medium-sized songbirds with fairly stocky proportions. They have thick, rounded bills suitable both for catching insects and eating fruit. The head is fairly large and the tail is somewhat short and broad.

In spring and summer, adult males are an unmistakable, brilliant red with black wings and tails.

Females and fall immatures are olive-yellow with darker olive wings and tails. After breeding, adult males molt to female-like plumage, but with black wings and tail.

Both sexes measures about 6.3 - 6.7 in length, with a wingspan of 9.8 - 11.4 inches and weigh about 23 - 38 grams.

Typical call is a distinctive, soft, hoarse “chip-burrr”. In summer, its Robin-like song of raspy notes “querit queer query querit queer” is heard in deciduous forests.

The female sings a song similar to the male’s, but softer, shorter, and less harsh. She sings in answer to the male’s song.

Feeds on insects, such as aphids, nut weevils, wood borers, leaf beetles, cicadas, dragonflies, ants, termites, caterpillars of gipsy moths, parasitic wasps and bees. They also eat some fruits such as mulberries, June-berries, huckleberries and other wild fruits.

Breeds in mature deciduous woodlands sometimes mixed woodlands or pines. It can inhabit wooded parks and large shade trees in residential areas. In winter, they live in the treetops, in evergreen forests.

The Scarlet Tanager arrives in the U.S. through April, moving into the northern U.S. and Canada to breed. It winters in western and northern South America and Central America.

The nest is a shallow open cup, built in a week or less by the female. It is made from twigs, rootlets, coarse grass, and weed stems and lined with fine grasses and pine needles. It is located from 4 - 75 feet above the ground and placed among a cluster of leaves.

The female lays 4 - 5 pale blue-green eggs, with browns spots. Incubation lasts 13 - 14 days. They are brooded only by female, but both parents bring food to the nest. The nest is always clean, parents carry away the droppings in their bill. The young leave the nest when they are 9 - 15 days old.