The Scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) is a medium-sized American songbird. Its plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family, although it lacks the thick conical bill (well suited to seed and insect eating) that many cardinals possess.
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DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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CarnivoreA carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of a...
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InsectivoresAn insectivore is a carnivorous plant or animal that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of e...
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ArborealArboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some anima...
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AltricialAltricial animals are those species whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile. They lack hair or down, are not able to obtain food ...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
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OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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Serial monogamySerial monogamy is a mating system in which a pair bonds only for one breeding season.
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FlockingFlocking birds are those that tend to gather to forage or travel collectively. Avian flocks are typically associated with migration. Flocking also ...
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MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
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starts withRe
Red AnimalsAdult Scarlet tanagers have pale, horn-colored, fairly stout, and smooth-textured bills. Adult males are crimson-red with black wings and tail. The male's coloration is intense and deeply red, similar but deeper in shade than the males of two occasionally co-existing relatives, the northern cardinal and the summer tanager, both of which lack black wings. Females are yellowish on the underparts and olive on top, with yellow-olive-toned wings and tail. The adult male's winter plumage is similar to the female's, but the wings and tail remain darker. Young males briefly show a more complex, variegated plumage intermediate between adult males and females.
Scarlet tanagers breed across eastern North America and spend winter in northwestern South America, passing through Central America. These birds inhabit large stretches of deciduous forest, especially with oaks, across eastern North America. They can be found in young successional woodlands and occasionally in extensive plantings of shade trees in suburban areas, parks, and gardens. In winter, Scarlet tanagers occur in the montane forest of the Andean foothills.
Scarlet tanagers are social birds and outside of the breeding season, they often join mixed foraging flocks. They are active during the day but often stay out of sight, foraging high in trees; they will sometimes fly out to catch insects in flight and then return to the same general perch, in a hunting style known as "sallying". This is a feeding strategy in which birds catch flying insects in the air. Sometimes, however, they also capture their prey on the forest floor. Scarlet tanagers migrate around April; they begin arriving in the breeding grounds in numbers by about May and already start to move south again in midsummer; by early October, they are all on their way south. The song of Scarlet tanagers sounds somewhat like a hoarser version of the American robin's and their call is an immediately distinctive 'chip-burr' or 'chip-churr'.
Scarlet tanagers are carnivores (insectivores). They eat mainly insects, such as bees, wasps, hornets, ants, and sawflies; moths and butterflies; beetles; flies; cicadas, leafhoppers, spittlebugs, treehoppers, plant lice, and scale insects; termites; grasshoppers and locusts; dragonflies; and dobsonflies. Scarlet tanagers also take snails, earthworms, spiders, and fruit when plentiful.
Scarlet tanagers are serially monogamous and form pairs that stay together for one breeding season. Males reach their breeding ground from mid-May to early June. Females generally arrive several days to a week later. Nest building and egg-laying both occur usually less than two weeks after the adults arrive. The nest is a shallow open cup usually located on a horizontal tree branch among leaves. It’s made of twigs, rootlets, and weed stems and lined with fine grasses or pine needles. The clutch is usually 4 eggs that are light blue in color, often with a slight greenish or whitish tinge. Incubation lasts for 11 to 14 days. The chicks are blind and helpless and weigh 3.97 g (0.140 oz) at hatching. They leave the nest by 9-12 days of age and fly capably by the time they are a few weeks old.
The numbers of Scarlet tanagers are declining due to exposure and starvation, especially when exceptionally cold or wet weather hits eastern North America and in some areas due to habitat fragmentation. Where forest fragmentation occurs, Scarlet tanagers suffer high rates of predation and brood parasitism. They often die from collisions with man-made objects including TV and radio towers, buildings, and cars.
According to Partners in Flight resource, the total breeding population size of the Scarlet tanager is around 2,600,000 individuals. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List and its numbers today are stable.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...