Summer Tanager

Copyright: monacoeye • All rights reserved • Ecuador, May 2010

Bird name: Summer Tanager
Latin: Piranga rubra
Other: Tángara roja migratoria (Es) • Sanhaçu-vermelho, sanhaçu-verão (Pt)
Family: Thraupidae • Tanagers - now Cardinalidae
Range: USA, Mexico, Central America, N South America, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil
Similar: Hepatic Tanager

Summer Tanagers look very similar to Hepatic Tanagers, so the identity of two birds pictured here should be treated with caution.

The bird above is identified as a migrant male Summer Tanager on location - it was seen at San Isidro Lodge (2300m) in March. San Isidro doesn’t list Hepatic as occuring there. Otherwise it might have been taken for a Hepatic Tanager, since it has a dark bill, slightly greyish lores and a carmine, not orange, tint to the bright red hue.

The bird below was, I believe, a migrant male Summer Tanager at the Milpe Reserve, 1600m?, in northwest Ecuador. It has the characteristic pale bill of the Summer Tanager, pale lores and slightly orange-red hue.

Female Summer Tanagers are olive-yellow.

Below, presumed male Summer Tanager, Milpe, Ecuador, March 2011.


Below, presumed male Summer Tanager at San Isidro Lodge, but dark bill…


Below, presumed Summer Tanager at Milpe Reserve, light bill…