Scarlet Tanager Habits
The male Scarlet Tanager may be a brilliant red during the breeding season, but it's more likely that you'll hear him than see him.
Perching high atop the forest canopy, his singing offers the best clue to his presence.
Making the longest trip of the four species that travel north, this bird arrives from the Andes each year just as the buds are flowering.
Male Scarlet Tanager
Description What They Look Like
The Scarlet Tanager measures 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 inches in length. Breeding males are brilliant red with black wings and a black tail.
The female has a yellowish breast with a belly that is greenish back. Her wings are a grayish brown.
Immature males have patches of red and yellow with wings and tails dark brown. Immature females look like the adult female.
Scarlet Tanager Call
Female birds are yellowish below and greenish above. The wings are a grayish brown.
Beginning at the end of July or early August, the male bird molts from his bright red and black alternate plumage to a drab, female-like basic plumage.
Individual birds show varying degrees of red splotches until molting is complete.
Mating Courtship Habits
As soon as they arrive in the Spring, males staking out and aggressively defend territories.
During courtship, the habits of the male change.
By Felix Uribe, CC BY-SA 2.0, Female Scarlet Tanager
Instead of singing high atop the trees as he does when claiming territory, he slips to a lower level where he can spread his wings and display his brilliant color to female birds perched higher up and behind.
With the mating and courtship habits complete, nesting begins.
Nesting Habits
During the nest building and incubation period, the male stays away from the nest. Although he will defend the nest site against other males.
The same bright colors that attracted his mate also make him a target for predators. Thus, the female bird does all the nest building and incubation.
The nest is a shallow cup of twigs, grass, and stems. Located 5 - 75 feet above the ground on the end of a horizontal limb.
The female lays 3 - 5 pale blue or green eggs that cand be either finely or bold spotted with brown.
Incubation last about 14 days and the young leave the nest within 9 - 11 days after hatching. Only 1 brood is raised each season.
Feeding Habits What the Eat
Scarlet Tanagers feed on the ground and in foliage, eating insects, spiders, and berries.
A welcomed bird to gardeners, one bird was recorded as eating 600 tent caterpillars in 15 minutes.
