SUMMER TANAGER GALLERY
(Piranga rubra)
eBird offers the following description of the Summer Tanager: Adult males are completely red; immature males are dull yellow with blotchy patches of red. Females are variable, ranging in color from pale dull yellow to brighter orange. In both sexes, note longer, paler bill than Scarlet Tanager. Breeds in wooded areas, ranging from pine-oak forests in the southeastern U.S. to riparian corridors in northern Mexico and western U.S. Winters in Central and South America. All About Birds adds this description: The only completely red bird in North America, the strawberry-colored male Summer Tanager is an eye-catching sight against the green leaves of the forest canopy. The mustard-yellow female is harder to spot, though both sexes have a very distinctive chuckling call note. Fairly common during the summer, these birds migrate as far as the middle of South America each winter. All year long they specialize in catching bees and wasps on the wing, somehow avoiding being stung by their catches.
On April 22, 2018 Dorothy and I saw and photographed a Summer Tanager while sitting in a blind at South Llano River State Park. This was our first real birding experience, and we were delighted to see the brightly colored Summer Tanager. I hope you enjoy some of the photos we took that day!
Mid-afternoon on June 16, 2020, I saw a nondescript mustard yellow bird out on my boathouse. Due to its size and the way it held itself, I thought it was a warbler. I took its picture and ran it through Merlin and, lo-and-behold, it was identified as a female Summer Tanager. I have posted a couple of pics in this gallery, and will be on the look out for its brightly colored mate!
Summer Tanager “Cool Facts” From All About Birds…
- The Summer Tanager is a bee and wasp specialist. It catches these insects in flight and kills them by beating them against a branch. Before eating a bee, the tanager rubs it on the branch to remove the stinger. Summer Tanagers eat larvae, too: first they get rid of the adults, and then they tear open the nest to get the grubs.
- Like most birds that migrate long distances, the Summer Tanager puts on large fat deposits to fuel its long flight. In one study, tanagers arriving in Panama had enough fat to fly an estimated additional 890 km (553 mi).
- Summer Tanagers are closely related to several other North American birds in the genus Piranga, including Scarlet and Western tanagers. Taxonomists used to place this genus in the same family as the true tanagers, but they now consider Summer Tanagers and their relatives to be part of the cardinal family instead.
- In places where both Summer and Scarlet tanagers live, the Summer Tanager breeds in shorter and more open woodlands. In the West, Western and Hepatic tanagers use coniferous forests at higher elevations, while Summer Tanagers breed in lowlands along streams.
- The oldest Summer Tanager on record was a male, and at least 7 years, 11 months old when he was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Texas in 1986.