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Summer Tanager

Piranga rubra ORDER: PASSERIFORMES FAMILY: CARDINALIDAE

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

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Summer Tanager Photo

The only entirely red bird in North America, the Summer Tanager is a bird of southern forests. It specializes in eating bees and wasps, both in the summer and on its wintering grounds in Central and South America.

Get BNA: the definitive resource for North American birds

Calls

  • Song, call
  • Courtesy of Macaulay Library
    © Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Song a series of slurred, whistled notes interspersed with short pauses. Usually contains one set that can be interpreted as "peanut-butter." Call a harsh, clicking "pit-i-tuck."

Read Cornell Lab of Ornithology's blog, Round Robin
Search the Macaulay Library online archive for more sounds and videos