Summer Tanager

Description:

This immature male was observed on my back deck. The photo is hazy, because it was shot through a window. Summer Tanagers are medium-sized, chunky songbirds with big bodies and large heads. They have large, thick, blunt-tipped bills. Adult male Summer Tanagers are entirely bright red. Females and immature males are bright yellow-green—yellower on the head and underparts and slightly greener on the back and wings. The bill is pale. Molting immature males (like this one) can be patchy yellow and red.

Habitat:

This one was observed in my yard in Edgefield County, SC. It was seen at the edge of a southern deciduous forest that includes oaks, hickories, and sweet gum with an understory of small maples and dogwood. Summer Tanagers tend to stay fairly high in the forest canopy, where they sit still and then sally out to catch flying insects in midair, or move slowly along tree branches to glean food.

Notes:

Fairly common during the summer, these birds migrate as far as the middle of South America each winter. All year long they specialize in catching bees and wasps on the wing, somehow avoiding being stung by their catches. Males have a sweet, whistling song similar to an American Robin; both sexes give a distinctive pit-ti-tuck call note.