Profile
In flight
Tropical Birds
Summer Tanager
Piranga rubra
- uncommon
- 40 km/h
- Least Concern
The only entirely red bird in North America. Specializes in eating wasps mid-air, stinger and all.
- Population
- ~12 million mature individuals (global, 2011 est. per Partners in Flight, cited on BirdLife DataZone factsheet as 12,000,000 with an increasing North American trend)
- Habitat
- Open woodlands and forest edges — pine-oak and mixed forests in the southeastern U.S., riparian lowland woodlands in the southwest; on non-breeding grounds it also uses tropical/subtropical forest, plantations, rural gardens, and other semi-open habitats from sea level up to ~4,000 m.
- Fun fact
- The adult male Summer Tanager is commonly cited as the only entirely red bird found in North America (its red/orange coloration is diet-derived); this specific superlative was not located verbatim on Wikipedia or Cornell in this verification pass, though it is a widely repeated claim in birding literature.
- Range
- Breeds across the southern United States (locally north to Iowa/New Jersey) and northern Mexico; migrates to winter in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, with some records into the Caribbean and Atlantic islands during migration. BirdLife gives a breeding range of ~5.68 million km2 and non-breeding range of ~15.2 million km2 across 37 countries/territories.
- Diet
- Primarily insects, especially bees and wasps caught in flight (stingers removed by beating the insect against a branch before eating) and wasp/bee larvae torn from nests; supplements with fruit, notably favored in winter quarters (e.g. Cymbopetalum mayanum), plus other invertebrates such as katydids, snails, and slugs.
- Size
- 0.17 m
- Wingspan
- 0.29 m
- Lifespan
- 11 years
