A Male Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanagers, while not endangered, are being threatened because these wild birds are quickly losing their wooded habitat. Scarlet Tanagers prefer mature forests, and by planting trees, especially oaks, in your yard, you can help give these birds alternative breeding and nesting sites that are currently being lost because of extensive deforestation in the United States.

Scarlet Tanagers are among the most desirable back yard residents, because they live largely on insects, especially flying insects such as flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and other annoying and potentially dangerous nuisance insects. In fact, a single bird was recorded to eat as many as six hundred tent caterpillars in the space of only fifteen minutes! They also occasionally forage for ground insects, and supplement their diet by eating buds and fruits.

The Scarlet Tanager is one of the birds that has a very long migration route: from their winter quarters in the Andes in South America to their breeding grounds as far north as Canada. They arrive in early spring, when the buds are forming, and stay until they molt for winter, when they turn a dull olive colour.

Scarlet Tanagers are shy and you will very rarely see them, because these birds stay very high in the tree tops. However, you will hear both male and female Scarlet Tanagers sing; the female Scarlet Tanager sings to the male to communicate while she is building her nest. Nests are usually built from twenty to thirty feet above ground and have the following four characteristics for nest placement: they are built with leaves shading the nest, well away from the trunk of the tree; on a nearly horizontal branch; an unobstructed, clear view of the ground below; and several open paths to fly to adjacent trees. They have one brood per year, so this species of wild bird is much more vulnerable than those that have two broods per year. The male stays away from the nest, while the drab olive coloured female incubates the eggs (a female may lay as many as six eggs in a clutch) and tends the hatchlings. Baby birds emerge from the nest in approximately ten days. The young Scarlet Tanagers are olive drab coloured, and even immature males during the first breeding season may not display the true colours.

By attracting these wild birds to your back yard, you will not only be helping to preserve this species, but you will help your garden by ridding it of many nuisance insects without pesticides!