Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) male is one of the most impressively stunning birds on Earth.  During the spring and summer the male tanager is an unmistakable scarlet red with black wings and tail.  After the molt the males turn back to a light greenish-yellow with grayish wings an tail and look like the females do all year.  Around the first of May is when the tanager come back to establish breeding territory in eastern deciduous forests.  Scarlet tanagers need large intact forests with mature trees.  They're susceptible to habitat fragmentation when this happens the brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) lays one egg in the scarlet tanagers nest at the expense of tanager chicks.  Lets stop forest destruction before the scarlet tanager goes the way of the buffalo!