Educate Yourself About the Scarlet Tanager and Thier Habitat
Scarlet Tanager
The Scarlet Tanager has a gray bill, flaming scarlet body and black wings, underside of wings are white, and a jet black tail. Its length is 7in (18cm). Its wingspan is 11in (29cm). Its voice is a song similar to that of American Robin, with four or five short phrases; note is a “chip-burr”. Their eggs are pale blue or pale green, dotted or blotched with brown, with 1 clutch of 3-5 (2-5) eggs. The female incubates for 13-14 days, and fledging for about 9-11 days. Both male and female feed their young.
The Scarlet Tanager looks like it belongs more in a tropical setting, than in our lovely bird feeding gardens, and with the tanagers strikingly red color, it probably is the most colorful bird in the world. They breed throughout the northeast and upper Midwest in wooded areas, and during the fall they migrate to Costa Rica, South America and other warm areas, where they mingle with other resident tanagers.
Males return north, a short time before the females do, and he will claim a nesting territory in a deciduous forest. Then the female will select a pretty singing male, who will jump around from low perches, spreading his wings, flashing his fiery red back and rump as a courtship ritual. The female Scarlet will build her nest on a horizontal branch, far from the trunk; it will take several days to build the saucer-shaped nest witch consists of twigs, coarse grass, and rootlets for the lining.
Sometimes you might think that the Scarlet Tanagers is a rare breed, because you do not see them to often, but if you listen up, you can hear its hoarse, robin-like song, around the garden all the time. The female will catch flying prey, but will most of the time like the male, typically eat insects from leaf surfaces, but will also feed on the ground. Their diet consists of tiny aphids, to termites and cicadas, but will also feast on fruit like wild cherries, dogwood, wild grapes, and blackgum
There are also Western Tanagers that live in the western states and provinces, where mountain coniferous and coniferous-deciduous forests are located, about 10.000ft (3.000m) up high. Summer tanagers are red (verging on crimson), over their whole body, and they are common across the southern third of the country, going as far north as the Great Lakes, in the eastern half.
If you like to attract the tanagers, plant cherries, mulberries, serviceberry, grapes, Virginia creeper, and dogwood. At your hanging bird feeders or bird tables, you can tempt them with doughnuts, bread, chopped bananas, and mealworms. Putting out some peanut butter mixed with cornmeal, turning in to crumbly dough, will be greatly appreciated as well.
The tanagers are also lured to dripping water, such as a fountains and pool water falls, but hanging a dripping hose over a bird bath will have the same effect, and for sure catch their attention.
