The Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) is one of the most spectacular songbirds of eastern North America. A breeding male can seem almost impossibly bright, with a scarlet-red body set against jet-black wings and tail. Yet despite those dramatic colors, Scarlet Tanagers can be surprisingly difficult to find. They spend much of their time high in the leafy canopy of mature forests, where a bird may be heard long before it is seen.
Females are entirely different in appearance, wearing subtle yellow-green plumage that blends beautifully into summer foliage. Even males change dramatically after the breeding season, molting out of their famous red feathers before beginning the long migration toward South America.
Learning the Scarlet Tanager’s plumage, voice, habitat, and behavior makes this elusive forest bird much easier to recognize.
⚡ Scarlet Tanager Fast Facts
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Common Name | Scarlet Tanager |
| Scientific Name | Piranga olivacea |
| Order | Passeriformes |
| Family | Cardinalidae |
| Genus | Piranga |
| Length | About 6.3–6.7 in (16–17 cm) |
| Wingspan | About 9.8–11.4 in (25–29 cm) |
| Weight | About 0.8–1.3 oz (23–38 g) |
| Diet | Primarily insects, supplemented by fruit |
| Habitat | Mature deciduous and mixed forests |
| Breeding Range | Eastern North America |
| Winter Range | Northern and western South America |
| Migration | Long-distance migrant |
| Clutch Size | Usually 3–5 eggs |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern |
| Best Identification Clue | Scarlet-red body with black wings and tail on breeding males |
Cornell reports a length of approximately 6.3–6.7 inches, making the Scarlet Tanager slightly smaller than a Northern Cardinal but larger than many warblers.
🔬 Scientific Classification
| Classification | Scarlet Tanager |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Passeriformes |
| Family | Cardinalidae |
| Genus | Piranga |
| Species | Piranga olivacea |
Despite the word tanager in its name, the Scarlet Tanager is placed in the family Cardinalidae, alongside cardinals, grosbeaks, buntings, and several other Piranga species. Modern classifications therefore separate these birds from the large tropical tanager family Thraupidae.
👀 How to Identify a Scarlet Tanager
Color is the first feature most birdwatchers notice, but Scarlet Tanagers look remarkably different depending on sex, age, and season.
Their general shape provides several consistent clues. Scarlet Tanagers are medium-sized, fairly stocky songbirds with a relatively large head, broad tail, and thick, rounded bill. The bill is substantial enough to handle both insects and fruit.
Adult Breeding Male
A breeding male is difficult to mistake once seen clearly.
Look for:
- Brilliant scarlet-red head
- Scarlet back and underparts
- Jet-black wings
- Black tail
- Pale, fairly thick bill
- No crest
- No black facial mask
The contrast between the scarlet body and completely black wings is the single most useful field mark.
A red bird with black wings high in an eastern forest during spring or summer should immediately suggest Scarlet Tanager.
Female Scarlet Tanager
Females look so different that beginning birdwatchers may not realize they are looking at the same species.
Adult females are generally:
- Olive-yellow to yellow-green
- Darker olive on the wings and tail
- Paler or yellower underneath
- Equipped with the same fairly heavy bill
- Uncrested
Their plumage provides excellent camouflage among leaves, making females particularly difficult to detect in the forest canopy.
Nonbreeding Male
Male Scarlet Tanagers do not remain scarlet throughout the entire year.
After breeding, males molt into a much more subdued yellow-green plumage. They can resemble females but generally retain distinctly dark or blackish wings and tail.
This transformation can make fall identification considerably more challenging.
Juvenile and Immature Birds
Young Scarlet Tanagers are much more subdued than breeding males and generally resemble females, with olive-yellow or greenish coloration and darker wings.
During migration, a bird’s combination of body color, dark wings, heavy bill, habitat, and call can be more helpful than searching for bright red plumage alone.
Cornell describes breeding males as bright red with black wings and tails, while females and fall immatures are olive-yellow with darker wings and tails.
🆚 Scarlet Tanager vs. Summer Tanager
The Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) is one of the species most likely to cause confusion.
Breeding males of both species are brilliantly red, but their wings make identification relatively easy.
| Feature | Scarlet Tanager | Summer Tanager |
|---|---|---|
| Male body | Scarlet red | Red |
| Male wings | Jet black | Red |
| Male tail | Black | Red |
| Female | Olive-yellow with darker wings | Yellow-green |
| Bill | Pale and fairly stout | Pale and stout |
| Typical habitat | Mature eastern forests | Open woodlands and forest edges |
| Best clue | Red body + black wings | Almost entirely red |
The rule to remember is:
Red bird + black wings = Scarlet Tanager.
A male Summer Tanager is much more uniformly red and lacks the Scarlet Tanager’s dramatic black wing-and-tail contrast.
❤️ Scarlet Tanager vs. Northern Cardinal
The Northern Cardinal is another bird commonly considered when someone sees a bright red songbird.
The differences are substantial when viewed carefully.
A male Northern Cardinal has:
- A tall pointed crest
- A black mask around the face
- A thick reddish-orange bill
- Red wings rather than solid black wings
- A longer-looking tail
Scarlet Tanagers lack both the cardinal’s crest and its black facial mask.
Habitat can help as well. Cardinals are familiar birds around yards, gardens, thickets, woodland edges, and feeders. Scarlet Tanagers are much more strongly associated with forest interiors and are often found high overhead.
🌳 Scarlet Tanager Habitat
Scarlet Tanagers are strongly associated with large, mature forests.
During the breeding season they inhabit deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous forests across eastern North America. Oak forests are especially characteristic, although tanagers also use forests containing maple, beech, hickory, hemlock, pine, and other trees.
Large forest tracts are particularly important.
Scarlet Tanagers are considered forest-interior birds, and fragmented woodlands can expose their nests to increased predation and brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds.
During migration, Scarlet Tanagers become less particular. They may appear in smaller woodlands, parks, gardens, shrubby areas, and other patches of suitable vegetation while traveling.
On their wintering grounds, they inhabit forests and forest edges in northern and western South America.
🗺️ Where Do Scarlet Tanagers Live?
The breeding range of the Scarlet Tanager covers a broad portion of eastern North America, including areas of southern Canada and much of the eastern United States.
They are summer birds across portions of:
- The Northeast
- Great Lakes region
- Appalachians
- Upper Midwest
- Mid-Atlantic
- Parts of the Southeast
- Southern Canada
Their distribution follows suitable forest habitat rather than backyard landscapes.
In autumn, Scarlet Tanagers leave North America and travel south to tropical wintering areas in South America.
Because they are migrants, birdwatchers in parts of the Gulf Coast and southern United States may see Scarlet Tanagers mainly as birds passing through rather than as long-term summer residents.
✈️ Scarlet Tanager Migration
The Scarlet Tanager makes an extraordinary migration every year.
These birds travel between breeding forests in eastern North America and wintering areas in South America. Many cross the Gulf of Mexico, a demanding overwater journey for a songbird weighing little more than an ounce.
Scarlet Tanagers generally migrate at night.
Spring migration brings birds north toward breeding territories, while late summer and autumn send them south again. During migration they may gather with other songbirds and appear in habitats where they would not normally breed.
Because migration changes their appearance and behavior, spring and fall Scarlet Tanager sightings can feel very different.
Spring offers the best chance to see spectacular scarlet-and-black males.
Fall may instead bring olive-yellow birds quietly feeding on berries before continuing south.
🐛 What Do Scarlet Tanagers Eat?
Scarlet Tanagers are primarily insect eaters, especially during the breeding season.
Their diet includes a surprisingly wide variety of small animals, including:
- Caterpillars
- Moths
- Butterflies
- Beetles
- Ants
- Bees
- Wasps
- Flies
- Cicadas
- Grasshoppers
- Aphids
- Spiders
- Other small invertebrates
They search leaves and branches carefully, picking prey from vegetation. They may also hover briefly while grabbing an insect or fly outward from a perch to capture flying prey.
Fruit becomes increasingly important at other times of year.
Scarlet Tanagers may eat:
- Mulberries
- Elderberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Serviceberries
- Huckleberries
- Chokeberries
- Other wild fruits
This flexible diet helps fuel their long migration and provides food when insects become less abundant.
🎵 Scarlet Tanager Song
Hearing a Scarlet Tanager is often much easier than seeing one.
The male sings a series of short, burry, slightly rough phrases. The overall rhythm resembles an American Robin, but the Scarlet Tanager’s voice has a raspier, hoarser quality.
A classic birdwatching description is that it sounds somewhat like a robin singing with a sore throat.
The male commonly sings from high in a tree while defending his breeding territory.
Interestingly, females also sing. Their songs tend to be softer and shorter than those of males.
📣 Scarlet Tanager Call
The call may actually be the most useful sound for finding this species.
Scarlet Tanagers give a distinctive call often rendered as:
“chick-burr”
It is short, energetic, and noticeably burry.
Learning this single sound can transform Scarlet Tanager birdwatching. A nearly invisible yellow-green female or red male buried behind leaves may reveal its presence with the call even when there is little chance of spotting it immediately.
Both males and females use the distinctive call.
🪺 Nesting & Breeding
Male Scarlet Tanagers typically arrive on breeding territories before females and begin establishing territories through singing and displays.
After pairing, the female selects the nest site.
Nests are usually placed in trees, often on relatively horizontal branches away from the main trunk. Mature deciduous trees such as oaks, maples, and beeches are commonly used, although other tree species may also provide nesting sites.
The female constructs a shallow, somewhat loosely built cup from materials such as:
- Twigs
- Grasses
- Plant stems
- Bark
- Rootlets
- Pine needles
- Fine plant fibers
The completed nest can appear surprisingly flimsy.
A typical clutch contains 3–5 eggs. The eggs are usually greenish-blue to light blue with darker markings.
The female handles incubation, which lasts approximately 12–14 days. Young remain in the nest for roughly 9–15 days after hatching. Both parents may help provide food, and parental care continues for a period after the young leave the nest.
🐄 Brown-Headed Cowbirds & Forest Fragmentation
One of the ecological challenges facing Scarlet Tanagers comes from Brown-headed Cowbirds.
Cowbirds are brood parasites. Rather than raising all of their own young, females may lay eggs in the nests of other birds.
Forest fragmentation can make Scarlet Tanager nests more accessible to cowbirds. A large continuous forest has much more interior habitat, while a fragmented landscape creates additional forest edges near fields, roads, lawns, and development.
Scarlet Tanagers nesting within small forest fragments may consequently experience greater exposure to cowbird parasitism and some nest predators.
Protecting large blocks of mature forest is therefore valuable even for a species that is not currently considered globally endangered.
🔭 How to Find a Scarlet Tanager
The biggest mistake when searching for Scarlet Tanagers is expecting such a colorful bird to be obvious.
It usually isn’t.
During spring and early summer, visit a mature eastern deciduous forest and listen first.
The burry, robin-like song may come from far overhead. Once you locate the general direction, search high branches rather than focusing on bushes or the forest floor.
Watch for movement between canopy openings.
A male changing perches may suddenly produce a brilliant flash of red that disappears again almost immediately behind leaves.
Also learn the chick-burr call. It can reveal both males and females.
During migration, broaden your search. Parks, wooded neighborhoods, forest edges, gardens, and fruiting shrubs can occasionally attract traveling birds.
Cornell specifically recommends listening for the male’s raspy song in mature deciduous forest and learning the distinctive call as a way to locate otherwise hidden birds.
🏡 Do Scarlet Tanagers Visit Backyards?
Scarlet Tanagers are not classic seed-feeder birds.
Their natural diet centers on insects and fruit, so a conventional tube feeder filled with sunflower seeds is unlikely to be the best way to attract one.
A wooded property has a better chance, particularly if it contains:
- Mature native trees
- Native berry-producing shrubs
- Insect-rich vegetation
- Minimal pesticide use
- Water
- Connections to larger woodland habitat
Fruit-producing plants such as serviceberries, mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, and other native berry plants may provide food for migrating tanagers.
For most homeowners, however, a Scarlet Tanager should be considered an exciting occasional visitor rather than a dependable backyard bird.
🌿 Conservation Status
The Scarlet Tanager is currently considered a species of relatively low global conservation concern, and Audubon lists its IUCN status as Least Concern. However, that does not mean its habitat is secure everywhere.
Scarlet Tanagers depend heavily on forests during multiple stages of their annual cycle.
Important conservation issues include:
- Loss of mature breeding forest
- Forest fragmentation
- Increased exposure to nest predators
- Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism
- Loss or degradation of migration stopover habitat
- Loss of wintering habitat in Central and South America
Protecting connected forest landscapes benefits not only Scarlet Tanagers but many other migratory forest songbirds.
💡 Fun Facts About Scarlet Tanagers
- The Scarlet Tanager’s scientific name is Piranga olivacea.
- The species belongs to the cardinal family, Cardinalidae.
- Breeding males are bright scarlet with completely black wings and tail.
- Females are olive-yellow rather than red.
- Males lose most of their red appearance after the breeding season.
- Scarlet Tanagers migrate all the way between North America and South America.
- Many cross the Gulf of Mexico during migration.
- Migration usually occurs at night.
- Both males and females can sing.
- The distinctive chick-burr call can be easier to detect than the bird itself.
- Scarlet Tanagers often remain high in the forest canopy even though the male’s plumage is extremely bright.
- They eat significant numbers of insects during summer.
- Wild fruits become an important food source during migration and at other times of year.
- Large, mature forests provide especially valuable breeding habitat.
- A breeding male can be separated from a Summer Tanager immediately by its black wings.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Are Scarlet Tanagers rare?
Scarlet Tanagers are not necessarily rare in suitable habitat, but they can seem rare because they are difficult to see. They frequently remain high in mature forest canopies and may be hidden behind leaves even while singing nearby.
What does a female Scarlet Tanager look like?
Females are primarily olive-yellow or yellow-green with darker olive wings and tail. They do not have the brilliant red coloration of breeding males.
Where do Scarlet Tanagers live?
They breed mainly in mature forests across eastern North America and spend the nonbreeding season in northern and western South America.
Do Scarlet Tanagers migrate?
Yes. They are long-distance migrants, and many individuals cross the Gulf of Mexico while traveling between North America and South America.
What does a Scarlet Tanager eat?
Scarlet Tanagers eat primarily insects during summer, including caterpillars, beetles, moths, bees, wasps, and many other invertebrates. They also consume berries and other fruit.
What does a Scarlet Tanager sound like?
The song consists of rough, burry phrases somewhat reminiscent of an American Robin. Their characteristic call is often described as chick-burr.
How can you tell a Scarlet Tanager from a Summer Tanager?
Look at the wings. A breeding male Scarlet Tanager has black wings and a black tail, while a male Summer Tanager is almost completely red.
How can you tell a Scarlet Tanager from a cardinal?
Northern Cardinals have a pointed crest, black facial mask, reddish-orange bill, and red wings. Scarlet Tanagers lack a crest and mask, and breeding males have black wings.
Do Scarlet Tanagers come to bird feeders?
They are not typical seed-feeder birds. Properties containing mature trees, native plants, insects, and berry-producing shrubs are more likely to attract a migrating Scarlet Tanager than conventional seed feeders.
Why does a male Scarlet Tanager turn yellow?
After the breeding season, males molt out of their brilliant scarlet breeding plumage and become yellow-green before migration. Their dark wings and tail remain useful identification clues.
🌳 A Flash of Scarlet in the Forest
Few North American birds provide quite the same experience as a Scarlet Tanager.
Sometimes the first clue is nothing more than a raspy song drifting from somewhere overhead. You search branch after branch without seeing anything. Then the bird moves, sunlight reaches the canopy, and for a second an intensely scarlet body and black wings appear between the leaves.
That combination of spectacular color and frustrating secrecy is part of what makes the Scarlet Tanager such a memorable bird.
Learning its rough robin-like song, unmistakable chick-burr call, forest habitat, and changing seasonal plumage makes finding one considerably easier—and turns an occasional flash of red high in the trees into a bird you can confidently identify.
🔗 Related Articles
- Birds With Red Chests: Identification Guide
- Birds With Red Heads: North American Identification Guide
- Discover the Backyard Birds of North Carolina
- Evening Grosbeak
📚 Sources
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Scarlet Tanager Overview
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Scarlet Tanager Identification
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Scarlet Tanager Life History
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Scarlet Tanager Range & Migration
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Scarlet Tanager Sounds
- National Audubon Society — Scarlet Tanager
- Avibase — Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)
