- Animals
- Reference
Scarlet Tanager
- Common Name:
- Scarlet Tanager
- Scientific Name:
- Piranga olivacea
- Type:
- Birds
- Size:
- Length: 7 inches
- IUCN Red List Status:
- Least concern
- Current Population Trend:
- Stable
The breeding male scarlet tanager is one of the easier North American birds to identify. Often seen in small flocks during migration, the scarlet sings on the breeding grounds and feeds high in the canopy. It moves sluggishly and can be difficult to spot. Monotypic. Length 7".
Identification
Sexually dimorphic. Both sexes have whitish wing lining. Breeding male: unmistakable, brilliant red all over, with black wings and tail. The bill, somewhat short and stubby, is thick at the base. Breeding female: females are entirely yellow-green, with yellower throat and sides, dark wings and tail, a thin eye ring, and wing coverts with greenish edging. Some adult females show weak wing bars. Winter adult: entirely greenish yellow, but retains black scapulars, wings, and tail. Late summer birds can be blotchy red. Immature male: resembles adult female but tends to be brighter yellow and has black scapulars and wing coverts. Immature female: more problematic. Entirely greenish yellow with grayer wings and tail.
Similar Species
Immature females are similar to some summers that lack orange tones. Note the scarlet’s gray undersurface to tail, which is yellowish in the summer. An adult female western typically shows more distinct wing bars, a grayer back contrasting with yellower rump, and a longer, paler bill.
Voice
Call: a hoarse chip or chip-burr, unlike other tanagers. Song: robinlike but raspy. Very similar to western tanager’s, a querit queer querry querit queer. Flight note: a whistled puwi.
Status and Distribution
Commonly nests in deciduous forests in the eastern half of North America. Breeding: arrives late April–mid-May. Migration: trans-Gulf migrant. Winter: mainly in Amazonia and the foothills of the Andes in South America. Vagrant: casual west to California coast, mainly in October and November.
Population
Sensitive to forest fragmentation and parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds.