Scarlet Tanager (male)

Scarlet Tanagers often appear in southern Ontario in mid-May, before the trees are in leaf, when their brilliant plumage causes gasps of wonder in appreciative onlookers.

Scarlet Tanager (male)

On their breeding grounds, high in the maples in June , they are surprisingly hard to find and are usually located only by song or calls.

Scarlet Tanager (male)

By fall, much of their spring finery has been replaced by green and most pass by unnoticed, to winter in the tropical forests of South America.

Scarlet Tanager (male)

Males with their brilliant scarlet or vermilion bodies and contrasting black wings and tail, are easily identified.

Scarlet Tanager (male)

Females have green body plumage with dark brown wings and tail.

Scarlet Tanager (female) photo: National Audubon Society

The song is a hoarse robin-like carol and the call an emphatic “tip-her”.

Scarlet Tanager (male)

Dr J Murray Speirs

(I took the photos for this in the Don Valley in May 2018 : Miles Hearn)