A land manager's guide to conserving habitat for forest birds in ...

Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea
Female Scarlet Tanager — Photo: Mark Peck
on surfaces of leaves,
flowers, fruit, and
bark. Scarlet Tanagers
often catch flying
insects in the air.
Male Scarlet Tanager — Photo: Jeff Nadler
Identification (16–17 centimetres)
The vivid black and red male Scarlet Tanager is one of our most
striking birds. Despite this brilliant colouration, it often goes
unnoticed because of its unobtrusive, secretive behaviour and
preference for the forest canopy. Quite unlike the males, females are
olive-green above and dull yellow below with dark wings and tail.
Conservation Status
The Scarlet Tanager is a bird of the forest interior, whose
breeding range corresponds closely to the boundaries of the
eastern deciduous forest zone, stretching from extreme southern
Canada to the northern Gulf States. Long-term continental
populations appear to be rather stable, although significant
declines have occurred in certain regions, particularly in areas of
intensive agriculture.
Breeding Biology
Scarlet Tanagers breed in mature deciduous or mixed forests,
preferring those dominated by large trees, often those with white
pine present. Females build thin, saucer-shaped nests in the
canopy of large diameter trees, often in the fork of a horizontal
limb, in a leaf cluster. Nests tend to be shallow, sometimes flimsy,
with eggs visible through the bottom. Birds are single-brooded,
breeding from late May to early July in Ontario. Clutches consist
of three to five eggs that are pale bluish in colour with fine
speckles of red or purplish brown.
Diet
During the breeding season, the tanager is mostly insectivorous,
eating a wide variety of flying and nonflying insects, various
insect larvae, and spiders. When insects are not plentiful, it will
take earthworms, buds and berries. It primarily forages among
leaves, twigs and branches in the mid-canopy, capturing insects
Management Guidelines
Scarlet Tanagers do best in areas that have low levels of forest
fragmentation and larger patches of forest. It fairs poorly in
fragmented regions due to poor nest survival and high rates of
parasitism by cowbirds. Scarlet Tanagers seem tolerant of a variety
of silviculture disturbances in large forest tracts, but prefer mature
tracts, particularly those with pine and/or oak. Strategies to
maintain habitat for Scarlet Tanagers will hinge on preserving large
tracts with large diameter trees. Efforts to reconnect fragments,
reduce edge habitat, and maintain pine and oak on the landscape
will help conserve local tanager populations.
How to Find
As a bird of the forest
interior that spends
much of its time in the
canopy, your best bet
for locating the Scarlet
Tanager is to listen for
its hoarse, burry song
and frequently uttered
chip-burrr calls. Where
you hear this song,
look for a bright red
male or greenishyellow
female fluttering
about in the canopy.
Did you know?
Photo: Peter Burke
• The male courts females by perching below her, stretching out
his neck and spreading his wings to show off his scarlet back
• The female sings a song that is softer, shorter, and less harsh
than the male’s, often in response to the male’s song, or while
building a nest.
• The response of the Scarlet Tanager to habitat fragmentation
varies from place to place. In the heart of its range in the
Northeast, it can be found in small forest patches. In the Midwest,
similar sized forest patches are not occupied by tanagers.
• The song of the Scarlet Tanager has been compared to that of a
robin with a sore throat.
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Bird Species Accounts