Scarlet Tanager

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iScarlet Tanager

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Piranga
Species:	P. olivacea

Binomial name

Piranga olivacea
(Gmelin, 1789)

The Scarlet Tanager, Piranga olivacea, is a medium-sized songbird of the Tanager family, Thraupidae.

Adults have pale stout smooth bills. Adult males are bright red with black wings and tail; females are yellowish on the underparts and olive on top, with olive-brown wings and tail. The adult male's winter plumage is similar to the female's, but the wings and tail remain darker.

Their breeding habitat is large forested areas, especially with oaks, across eastern North America. They build a cup nest on a horizontal tree branch.

These birds migrate to northwestern South America. This tanager is an extremely rare vagrant to western Europe.

These birds are often out of sight, foraging high in trees, sometimes flying out to catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects and berries.

These birds do best in the forest interior, where they are less exposed to predators and nest parasitism by the Brown-headed Cowbird. Their numbers are declining in some areas due to forest fragmentation.

[edit] Interesting Scarlet Tanager Facts

The Scarlet Tanager is the only species of Tanagers that undergo seasonal changes in its plumage. Each fall, the male Scarlet Tanager changes his strikingly beautiful red and black plumage to a more drab olive green pretty much the same as the female Scarlet Tanagers plumage.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Piranga olivacea. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
Interesting Scarlet Tanager Facts donated by BirdHouses101.com