Profile
In flight
Tropical Birds
Scarlet Tanager
Piranga olivacea
- uncommon
- 40 km/h
- Least Concern
Brilliant red body, jet-black wings, lives high in eastern hardwoods. Looks tropical because it spends winter there.
- Population
- ~12 million mature individuals globally (BirdLife/Partners in Flight), with a slight ongoing decline; note an older/regional 2011 figure of ~2.6 million individuals also appears in some BirdLife text and should not be used as the current global figure.
- Habitat
- Mature deciduous (and mixed) forests, favoring the high canopy; on the breeding grounds it generally needs large, unfragmented tracts (roughly 10-12+ hectares) of forest, though northeastern populations can persist in smaller patches; winters in montane forests of the Andean foothills (Colombia/Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia) and as far north as Panama.
- Fun fact
- Male Scarlet Tanagers molt out of their brilliant scarlet breeding plumage into a female-like olive-green color (while keeping black wings) before migrating south each fall.
- Range
- Breeds across eastern North America (southern Canada through the eastern/central United States); a long-distance migrant that winters in northwestern South America (Andean foothills of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) and Panama, passing through Central America and the Caribbean en route. Breeding range (EOO) ~4.82 million km²; nonbreeding range (EOO) ~4.44 million km² (BirdLife DataZone).
- Diet
- Primarily insectivorous — bees, wasps, hornets, ants, sawflies, moths, butterflies, beetles, and flies (plus spiders, snails, and other invertebrates such as cicadas, leafhoppers, and grasshoppers per Cornell) gleaned from the forest canopy; supplements with fruit (e.g., blackberries, raspberries) and tender buds, especially when insects are scarce.
- Size
- 0.18 m
- Wingspan
- 0.28 m
- Lifespan
- 10 years
