Scarlet Tanager

The Scarlet Tanager is a canopy-dwelling songbird of mature deciduous forests across eastern North America, known for the breeding male's dramatic combination of vivid scarlet-red body plumage set against contrastingly black wings and tail. This bold, high-contrast pattern makes males one of the most striking birds of the eastern forest canopy when spotted in good light, though their habit of staying high in leafy treetops can make them surprisingly hard to see well. Females and non-breeding males are much less conspicuous, showing an overall olive-yellow plumage with darker wings.

Breeding male body feathers are a saturated, pure scarlet-red covering the head, back, and underparts, sharply demarcated from the solid black of the wing and tail feathers, with no intermediate blending between the two colors. This is a key distinction from Summer Tanager, which lacks black wings entirely. Females and non-breeding males show olive-yellow body feathers with dark grayish or blackish wings that are less starkly black than the breeding male's, and lack the vivid red body color. Non-breeding (basic plumage) males in fall show a notable transitional appearance, with patches of scarlet feathers mixed among olive-yellow ones during the molt from breeding to non-breeding plumage.

Adult males in breeding (alternate) plumage show the full scarlet-and-black pattern from spring through summer. After the breeding season, males molt into a non-breeding (basic) plumage resembling females, olive-yellow with dark wings, though the black wing and tail feathers are typically retained through this molt, so molting males can show a mix of red and yellow-green body feathers. Females maintain olive-yellow plumage with darker wings year-round. Immatures resemble females initially.

Scarlet Tanagers breed in mature deciduous and mixed forest across eastern North America, favoring the upper canopy of large trees. The species is a long-distance migrant, wintering in forests of northern and western South America, and can be encountered in a variety of wooded habitats during migration.

This species forages primarily in the forest canopy for insects, supplementing its diet with fruit, and can be difficult to spot despite bright male coloration due to its habit of staying high in dense foliage. The song is a hoarse, burry, robin-like phrase, and a distinctive sharp chip-burr call note is often the best clue to its presence. Nests are cup-shaped, built on a horizontal branch well up in the canopy. Because of its canopy-dwelling habits, the Scarlet Tanager is often heard well before it is seen.