Photo by Bob Loudon
One of the birds I look forward to seeing every year is a Summer Tanager, specifically the male. Watching this all-red bird is one of the rewards of witnessing spring migration in Louisiana. Summer Tanagers are often observed with flocks of Scarlet Tanagers—red birds with jet-black wings. The problem with seeing both tanagers is that it is hard to decide which one is more stunning.
While the Scarlet Tanagers continue northward, the Summer Tanagers stay in Louisiana to breed. They can be seen feasting heavily on ripe mulberries when they first hit Louisiana’s coast. The female Summer Tanager is yellowish-green and usually not far from the male.
Tanagers are known for eating stinging insects, mainly bees and wasps. It is not unusual to see one sitting on a limb with a bee in its bill. The tanager kills the insect by beating it against a branch, after which the insect’s stinger must be removed, usually by rubbing it off on a branch. Tanagers will also tear apart wasp nests to eat the grubs.
Tanagers are often seen catching insects in mid-air, then flying back to a branch to eat their meal. This is the best way to see Summers, as they otherwise remain high in the trees.
The female Summer Tanager builds an open-cup nest of dried grasses, which is placed in a fork of branches or cluster of leaves on a horizontal branch, often overhanging a road. Field biologists have found that tanagers in the east usually build flimsy nests that allow the eggs to be seen through the bottom, while the nests of tanagers in the west are sturdy and well constructed. Go figure!
The eggs are pale blue to pale green with dark spots and blotches. The clutch size is usually two to five eggs and will hatch on the same day. Both parents feed the chicks, which fledge in about ten days but remain by the parents for three weeks.
Summer Tanagers have a musical, warbling song that can end with a buzz sound. Sometimes it can sound like an avian hiccup.
Description: Robin-size songbird; males are an orange-red to blood-red color with darker colored wings; large, heavy yellow bill and dark legs; black eyes; females are yellowish-green overall with olive green on the wings. Immature males resemble females; first spring males will have varying amounts of random red and yellow feathers while molting into adult red plumage.
When: Summer Tanagers migrate to Louisiana in April; they leave during mid- to late October. They are found on the edges of woods, riparian woodlands, and brushy roadsides. They can be attracted to backyards containing red mulberry trees located near woodlands.
Breeding: Tanagers winter in Central and South America and return to the southern United States to breed; breeding range includes Louisiana, westward to California, and north-eastward into the mid-Atlantic region. Nests are built in pine-oak forests.
Feeding: Insects, mainly bees and wasps, but also ripe berries.
Interesting facts: A group of tanagers is collectively called a ‘season’ of tanagers.
