Male summer tanagers are unmistakable. They’re the only entirely red birds found in the United States and Canada. You’d think that it would make them stand out in green treetops, but they can be surprisingly difficult to spot. Unlike a scarlet tanager that is red only in spring and summer, a male summer tanager keeps his bright colors in all seasons.
Unlike the bright red males, females are a leafy, greenish yellow color, blending into the trees even more. They can be hard to tell apart from some other tanagers.
Summer tanagers are clever eaters. A nickname for the summer tanager is “bee bird” because it eats so many wasps and bees. People have observed them catching bees and wasps, flying to a branch, and rubbing the insects against it to remove their stingers before gobbling the bugs. To attract this species, plant native flowers that attract flying insects.
Summer tanagers are an explosion of color and look perfectly at home in the tropics, where they spend the winter. But during the warm season, they are found in their core breeding range, which includes the Southeast and stretches all the way into California, with sightings reported as far north as southern Ontario.
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