Summer Tanager by David Whited

Summer Tanager

David Whited

Summer Tanager

Digital photography

Inv: MM-1172

The Summer Tanager is a medium-sized songbird found across the southern United States into Mexico and Central America, with males sporting an entirely rosy-red plumage (making them the only completely red bird in North America) while females and immature males are a warm mustard-yellow to olive. A specialist in catching and eating bees and wasps—which it kills by beating against a branch before rubbing off the stinger—it also eats other insects and fruit, and prefers open woodlands, particularly groves of oak, cottonwood, or pine, where its rich, robin-like whistling song and distinctive sharp "pik-i-tuk-i-tuk" call note can often be heard before the bird itself is seen.