Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)
• Scarlet Tanagers love to eat insects but will also eat fruit and tender plant buds. The bugs they enjoy most include ants, moths, butterflies, plant lice, termites, grasshoppers, locusts, snails, earthworms, and spiders.
• These pretty red birds are strong fliers and migrate long distances in fall and spring.
• Male Scarlet Tanagers can sometimes have territorial singing battles where one or both of the males spread and droop their wings and raise their tail in threat. If neither one backs down, the males start chasing one another.
• Female Scarlet Tanagers also sing and they sing a song that is similar to the males but is a softer, shorter, and less harsh song. Females sing to respond to a male’s song or while they are gathering nest material.
Identification Information
• Size: Between a sparrow and a robin (Small)
• Color: During the spring and summer, the adult male Scarlet Tanagers are a bright red with black wings and tails. Females and young male tanagers are a greenish/yellow with darker wings and tails.
