Facts about Summer Tanager
- 08
Across their range, Summer Tanagers arrive in North America as late as May, making them among the last migratory songbirds to return from their wintering grounds.
- 07
Summer Tanagers possess specialized thick skin inside their mouths that provides immunity to bee and wasp stings while swallowing their venomous prey whole.
- 06
A Summer Tanager's diet consists almost entirely of bees and wasps, with studies showing they can consume over 2,000 insects daily during peak breeding season.
- 05
The Summer Tanager's bright red plumage takes approximately two years to fully develop, with first-year males displaying a patchy yellow-and-red intermediate coloration.
- 04
Female Summer Tanagers display olive-yellow plumage that closely resembles female scarlet tanagers, making field identification between the two species particularly challenging for birdwatchers.
- 03
Unlike most songbirds, Summer Tanagers primarily hunt flying insects mid-air, catching 80 percent of their food through aerial hawking rather than gleaning from foliage.
- 02
Summer Tanagers migrate over 5,000 miles annually between North American breeding grounds and South American wintering territories in the Amazon basin.
- 01
Breeding male Summer Tanagers are entirely bright red, making them the only all-red tanager species native to North America.