Summer Tanager

Taxobox
name = Summer Tanager


image_width = 240px
image_caption = Adult male
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = Cardinalidae (see text)
genus = "Piranga"
species = "P. rubra"
binomial = "Piranga rubra"
binomial_authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Summer Tanager, "Piranga rubra", is a medium-sized songbird. It was usually considered a fairly typical kind of tanager and placed in the Thraupidae, but is more likely a relative of the cardinals (Cardinalidae).

Their breeding habitat is open wooded areas, especially with oaks, across the southern United States. These birds migrate to Mexico, Central America and northern South America. This tanager is an extremely rare vagrant to western Europe.

Adults have stout pointed bills. Adult males are rose red; females are orangish on the underparts and olive on top, with olive-brown wings and tail.

These birds are often out of sight, foraging high in trees, sometimes flying out to catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects, especially bees and wasps, and berries. Notably, fruit of "Cymbopetalum mayanum" (Annonaceae) are a well-liked food in the winter quarters, and birds will forage in human-altered habitat [Foster (2007)] . Consequently, these trees can be planted to entice them to residential areas, and they may well be attracted to bird feeders. Summer Tanagers build a cup nest on a horizontal tree branch.

Song & Calls

The Summer Tanager has an American Robin-like song, similar enough that novices sometimes mistake this bird for that species. The song consists of melodic units, repeated in a constant stream. The Summer Tanager's song, however, is much more monotonous than that of "T. migratorius", often consisting of as few as 3 or 4 distinct units. It is clearer and less nasal than the song of the Scarlet Tanager.

The Summer Tanager also has a sharp, agitated-sounded call "pi-tuk" or "pik-i-tuk-i-tuk". [Peterson & Peterson (2002)]

References

*|year=2004|id=53807|title=Piranga rubra|downloaded=12 May 2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
* (2007): The potential of fruiting trees to enhance converted habitats for migrating birds in southern Mexico. "Bird Conservation International" 17(1): 45-61. doi|10.1017/S0959270906000554 [http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=936412 PDF fulltext]
* (2002): "Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America" (5th ed.). Houghton Mifflin, Boston. ISBN 0-395-74046-0

References