Summer Tanager

Represented by a striking sexual dimorphism, this medium-sized passerine bird belongs to the Cardinalidae family and stands out due to its unique coloration. Adult males exhibit an entirely rose-red plumage during the breeding season, making them the only completely red birds in North America without a crest. Their wings and tail feathers may occasionally show slightly darker, dusky edges. Conversely, adult females display a soft olive-green color on their upperparts and a bright mustard-yellow on their underparts, which provides excellent camouflage within the leafy forest canopy. Their bill is notably robust, blunt, and pale horn-colored or yellowish-gray. Juvenile birds present a mottled appearance with patchy transitions of orange, yellow, and red before reaching maturity. They typically measure between 6.7 to 7.5 inches (17 to 19 centimeters) in length, possess a wingspan of 11 to 12 inches (28 to 30 centimeters), and weigh around 0.8 to 1.1 ounces (24 to 32 grams).

Geographical distribution: This long-distance migratory species breeds across the southern and eastern United States, ranging from southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico eastward to the Atlantic coast, and extending south into northern Mexico. During the late summer, they undertake a nocturnal migration to their wintering grounds in Central America (including southern Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama) and northern South America, reaching as far south as Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and occasionally western Brazil and northern Bolivia.

Habitat: During the breeding season, this bird prefers open deciduous forests, particularly those dominated by oak (Quercus spp.), as well as mixed pine-oak woodlands, riparian corridors, orchards, and mature suburban parks. In its wintering range within the Neotropics, it adapts to a wider variety of environments, including tropical rainforests, secondary growth, forest edges, and shade-grown coffee plantations, demonstrating a high tolerance for modified landscapes as long as tall trees remain available.

Feeding: It is predominantly an insectivorous specialist, famous for its unique ability to prey on hymenopterans. Its diet relies heavily on wasps and bees, which it captures mid-air using sallying techniques from a perch. Upon catching a stinging insect, the bird carries it back to a branch and rubs it vigorously against the bark to remove the stinger and venom glands before consumption. It also feeds on beetles, ants, caterpillars, and cicadas. During the migratory period and winter months, it supplements its diet by consuming diverse wild fruits and berries, especially from plants of the Ficus and Miconia genera.

Behavior: It is mostly a solitary and territorial species outside of the breeding period, although it may join mixed-species foraging flocks during migration. It typically spends its time foraging slowly in the high forest canopy, which makes it difficult to spot despite the male´s bright red color. Males establish territories in spring and defend them using sweet, buzzy, robin-like songs. Their characteristic contact call is a sharp, dry "chicky-tuck" sound, which is highly diagnostic and easily recognizable in the field.

Nesting: The breeding season begins in late spring. The female selects a site and builds a shallow, cup-shaped nest. This open-cup structure is often so thin that the eggs can be seen from below. It is placed on a horizontal branch of a deciduous tree, usually 10 to 30 feet (3 to 10 meters) above the ground. Materials used include dried grasses, rootlets, bark strips, and weed stems, bound together with spiderwebs. The female lays a clutch of 3 to 4 pale blue-green eggs, heavily speckled with brown and gray spots. The incubation period lasts about 11 to 12 days and is performed exclusively by the female. Once hatched, both parents actively feed the altricial chicks with soft insects, and the young fledge the nest approximately 13 to 15 days after hatching.

Conservation status: It is currently classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List. Although the global population is considered stable and spans an extensive geographic range, the species faces local challenges such as forest fragmentation in its northern breeding grounds, habitat degradation in Neotropical wintering sites, and risks associated with window collisions during long-distance migration.