Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Brilliant Scarlet Tanager

By: Tom Berg

Have you ever seen a bird known as the Scarlet Tanager? Male Scarlet Tanagers are very unique, with bright red bodies and jet black wings and tails. Females are a much more drab olive-yellow color with slightly darker olive wings and tails. In spring and summer, the bright red males are the rock stars of the species!

The brilliant red males can be confused with male Summer Tanagers which are all red, and also with male Northern Cardinals which are also bright red. There are obvious differences between them all, though, so each species can be easily recognized. Male Summer Tanagers are completely red, while male Scarlet Tanagers are red with black wings and a black tail. Male Northern Cardinals are also bright red, but they have a distinctive crest on top of their head which the tanagers lack, and the cardinals also have a black mask and throat.

Scarlet Tanagers concentrate on eating insects during the spring and summer, although they often supplement their protein diet with various fruits. Favorite insects include ants, beetles, spiders, moths, bees, wasps, leafhoppers, flies and many others. They also eat a large amount of fruit during their fall migration and while on their wintering grounds. Mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries and other small fruits attract Scarlet Tanagers as they ripen.

Like many species of birds, Scarlet Tanagers usually hunt for food high up in the trees, near the top of the forest canopy. This makes them very hard to spot during the summer when the trees are full of leaves. The bright red color of the males does stand out against the green vegetation, however.

When these birds begin their fall migration, the males molt their red feathers and they are replaced by yellow-green feathers similar to those of the females.  They keep their black wings and tails, though.  Scarlet Tanagers fly south, mostly at night, and cross the Gulf of Mexico in search of their wintering grounds in northern and western South America. We will see them again next spring!

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