Summer Tanager
Piranga rubra
SUTA

Bird Description
Fairly common s. tanager in open, deciduous, particularly oak, woodland. Despite bright coloring can be very difficult to see, presence often given away by its 2- or 3-note ‘nip-n-tuck’ call. Sings from within the trees, an explosive series of warbled, robin-like notes. Sits quietly, moves slowly, if at all, making it easy to overlook. A loner. ID: A large, bulky tanager with a broad head, and often peaked crown. Tail is fairly long and broad. Bill is large, with a strongly curved culmen and is distinctively pale (horn), SCTA’s is smaller and darker. Birds in farW have larger bills, are paler with contrastingly paler fringes to wing coverts. Ad ♂: cardinal red including fringes to wing feathers. ♀: uniform green upperparts, mustard yellow underparts. Some have red, mostly in tail, wing coverts, and head. 1st-w: as ad ♀. 1st-s ♂: variable mixture of red (head and body) and green (tail and wings). SUTA never shows SCTA’s strong contrast between wing and body.
