General
Summer Tanager: Large tanager, dark-red overall with a large, pale gray bill. Female has olive-green upperparts and variably orange-yellow underparts. Juvenile has faintly streaked brown upperparts, olive-brown wings and tail, and streaked, pale yellow underparts.
Range and Habitat
Summer Tanager: Breeds from southern California, Nevada, Nebraska, and New Jersey, south to the Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. Spends winters in tropics. Prefers open oak, hickory, and mixed oak-pine woodlands; also found in parks, orchards, and along roadsides.
Breeding and Nesting
Summer Tanager: Three to five brown marked, light blue or green eggs are laid in a nest made of grass, stems, and moss, lined with fine grass, and built 10 to 35 feet above the ground on a horizontal limb of an oak or pine. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by the female.
Foraging and Feeding
Summer Tanager: Feeds mainly on insects, including bees, wasps, caterpillars, grasshoppers, dragonflies, beetles, and cicadas. Forages in the tops of trees by gleaning from twigs and leaves; occasionally hovers at leaf clusters.
Readily Eats
Safflower, Apple Slices, Suet, Millet, Peanut Kernels, Fruit
Vocalization
Summer Tanager: Song is highly variable, but generally consists of five or more phrases each with two to four notes. Call is a harsh, descending "pituck" or "tipi-tuck-i-tuck."
Similar Species
Summer Tanager: Male and female Hepatic Tanagers have dark bills and cheek patches.