Family:
The scarlet tanager is a medium-sized, stocky songbird with a relatively large head and short, broad tail. The male in breeding plumage is bright crimson red with black wings and tail. Females have yellow underparts and olive upperparts with darker wings and tail. Both sexes have a horn-coloured, stout bill. In winter plumage the male is similar to the female.
Despite the male’s bright plumage, scarlet tanagers can be hard to spot as they stay high in the canopy of forests. They will often play host to the eggs of the brown-headed cowbird.
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Scarlet tanagers eat mainly insects such as bees, wasps, ants, moths, butterflies, and grasshoppers. They will also take fruit, snails, worms, and spiders.
They scrape their prey against branches to remove their stings before eating them.
In breeding season scarlet tanagers can be found across eastern North America in woodlands and the shade of trees in parks of suburban areas. The migrate to north western South America for winter joining flocks of mixed species including flycatchers, antbirds, woodcreepers, and tropical tanagers.
