Summer Tanager

Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Arthur Cleveland Bent was the lead author for the series. The Bent series is a great resource and often includes quotes from early American Ornithologists, including Audubon, Townsend, Wilson, Sutton and many others.

Bent Life History for the Summer Tanager – the common name and sub-species reflect the nomenclature in use at the time the description was written.

This wholly red tanager is the southern representative of the family, breeding throughout the central United States east of the Prairies and southward to Florida, the gulf coast, and northeastern Mexico. It occurs as a straggler only in New England and on our northern borders.

The favorite haunts of the summer redbird, as it is often called, are open dry, upland woods, among oaks, hickories, and other hardwood trees. In North Carolina, according to Pearson and the Brinileys (1919), it is “equally at home in pine forests, mixed woods, groves of shade trees near houses, or mulberry orchards.” In South Carolina, Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says: “This species prefers open pine woods with an undergrowth of scrubby oaks and small hickory trees in which to breed.”

Spring: Alexander F. Skutch writes to me: “As it arrives late in Central America, so the summer tanager leaves early. By the beginning of April the species is already becoming rare in Costa Rica; my latest record for this country is April 12. In Guatemala, farther north, it has been recorded as late as April 25 by myself and April 27 by Griscom; but these were stragglers that had lingered behind the main migration.”

The summer tanager is one of many species of small birds that evidently migrate directly across the Gulf of Mexico from Central America to the Gulf States. M. A. Frazar (1881) reported that a few of this species were observed while he was cruising from the coast of Texas to Mobile, Ala., and when his small schooner was about 30 miles south of the mouths of the Mississippi. Further evidence of trans-Gulf migration is given in the following contribution from Francis M. Weston regarding the spring migration of the summer tanager, as observed near Pensacola, Fla.: “Abundance of the summer tanager at this season depends upon weather conditions, as is the case with most of the trans-Gulf migrant species that make their first landfall on this part of the coast. A season of long periods of good weather brings us no more tanagers than would be needed to provide our rather sparse breeding population, and it is presumed that at such times great numbers must pass over unseen on their way to more northerly nesting grounds. In bad weather, however, when an incoming flight meets rain, heavy fog, or strong north winds, and halts on the coast instead of continuing on its way inland, tanagers in uncountable abundance swarm in city gardens and parks and in coastwise patches of woods. I recall my amusement, one spring, at the confusion of a visiting ornithologist who, delighted at the sight of several tanagers, set out to count the number he could find in a single vacant, wooded city block. All went well, the birds flitting along before him as he slowly traversed the block. Then, looking back, he saw that more new birds had come into the area behind him than he had already chased out and counted. He finally gave up the project as hopeless and contented himself with noting the species as ‘very abundant’. A swarm of tanagers like that can be expected during any or every spell of bad weather from the last week of March through all of April. This spring influx persists even into May, for, on May 8,1945, a mixed flight of incoming migrants, halted by bad weather, included a fair sprinkling of summer tanagers.”

The tanagers of this species that breed in Florida, and perhaps some of those that nest farther north, evidently pass over Cuba and the Florida Keys to reach the mainland of Florida. A heavy storm, resulting in many casualties to this and other species, at Key West and the Tortugas, is described by Commander F. M. Bennett (1909). Migration through Texas serves to bring the birds to the more western portions of their breeding range, though some of these apparently cross a portion of the Gulf of Mexico. The earliest birds reach Florida before the end of March, but the main northward migration is accomplished through the month of April, reaching the northern limits of the breeding range early in May.

Around the middle of April, 1929, a remarkable visitation of summer tanagers reached New England, blown northward by a severe storm, of which John B. May (Forbush, 1929) says: “This storm first appeared in Texas April 13, travelled east rather slowly to South Carolina, then swung northeast along the coast, reaching its greatest intensity between New Jersey and Massachusetts on April 16.”

Audubon (1841) says: “Whilst migrating, they rise high above the trees, and pursue their journeys only during the day, diving towards dusk into the thickest parts of the foliage of tall trees, from which their usual unmusical but well-known notes of chicky-chucky-chuck are heard, after the light of day has disappeared.”

Nesting: F. M. Weston contributes the following account of the nesting habits of this species in northwestern Florida, near Pensacola: “During the nesting season, the summer tanager deserts the city and the coastal strip of woods and retires to the pine areas a few miles inland. Here they select as nest sites the dogwoods (Cornus florida) and the scrub oaks scattered through the pine lands. I suspect, too, that they nest in the pine trees that are still young enough to bear branches within 10 or 15 feet of the ground. The nests are hard to find and I have but little data to offer. This, first, because the birds are far from common and, secondly, because the flimsy, inconspicuous nests can be concealed by a single leaf of such large-foliaged scrub oaks as Quercus catesbaei and Q. marilandica, two species especially favored as nest sites. Nests containing eggs have been found from the last week of May until the middle of June, and I have no data that would indicate a second nesting. Both sexes feed the young birds, but I do not know if the male parent assists with incubation or nest building .

Farther south in Florida, according to Arthur H. Howell (1932): “Summer Tanagers live in open woodland, preferring the pines, but are found to some extent in oak hammocks. Their nests are placed usually on a horizontal limb of a pine or oak, 12 to 35 feet above the ground, and are very loosely constructed of weed stems and Spanish moss, and lined with fine grasses.” Charles R. Stockard (1905) says that, in Mississippi: “These birds seem to have a foolish fancy for building their nests on horizontal branches that overhang roadways. * * * ‘they build a nest home of smooth contour and always lined with a golden yellow grass straw or a similar greenish straw giving to the concavity of the nest a very characteristic appearance; the common ‘pepper grass’ stems make a favorite material for the outer layer.”

A nest in the U. S. National Museum collection measures 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height; it has an internal depth of barely half an inch.

Eggs: Four eggs usually constitute the set for summer tanager, but often only three are laid and rarely as many as five. They are ovate in shape, with some variations toward elongate or short ovate. The shell is moderately glossy. William George F. Harris has given me the following description of the eggs: The ground color maybe “pale Nile blue,” “Etain blue,” “pale Niagara green,” or “pale glaucous green.” This is speckled, spotted, blotched, and occasionally clouded, with “Argus brown,” “Brussels brown,” “raw umber,” “chestnut brown,” “mummy brown,” or “Prout’s brown,” with undertones of “light mouse gray” or “Quaker drab.” There is great variation in size and arrangement of the markings; in general, they are well distributed over the entire egg, but there is a tendency to concentrate toward the large end, where sometimes they are confluent and form a solid wreath or cap. The gray or drab undertones are as a rule not particularly prominent. The markings are generally bolder than on the eggs of the scarlet or the hepatic tanagers. Rarely, a set may partially or entirely lack the blue coloring and have instead a creamy white ground color with the usual brown markings.

The measurements of 50 eggs average 23.1 by 17.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.4 by 17.8, 24.9 by 18.3, 21.1 by 16.3, and 23.5 by 16.1 millimeters.

Young: The period of incubation for the summer tanager is said to be 12 days. Information on the development and care of the young seems to be lacking, beyond the fact, mentioned by Weston (MS.), that both sexes are known to feed the young .

Plumages: Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage of the summer tanager as: “Above, ruddy or yellow tinged sepia-brown with darker edgings and feather centres producing a faintly streaked appearance. Wings deep olive-brown with olive-yellow or greenish edgings, usually reddish tinged on the outer primaries, the coverts duller, the tertiaries paler. Tail bright olive-green or olive-yellow often reddish tinged basally, the shafts sepia-brown. Below, dull white tinged with sulphur-yellow on abdomen and crissum, distinctly and broadly streaked on the throat, breast and sides with deep olivebrown.”

The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage and nearly alike in the first winter plumage. The postjuvenal molt in July and August involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings nor the tail. This produces the first winter plumage, which Dwight describes as: “Above pale olive-green with a strong orange tinge, reddish in many specimens. Below chrome-yellow often strongly tinged with orange especially on the crissum and edge of the wings. The wing coverts are edged with olive-green strongly tinged with yellow or orange according to individual vitality. The orbital ring is usually chrome-yellow or paler.”

The first nuptial plumage in the young male is, he says: Acquired by a partial prenuptial moult which involves portions of the body plumage, wing coverts, tertiaries and the tail. There is an unusual amount of individual variation in the extent of this moult accentuated by the contrast of the new vermilion or poppy-red feathers among the old greenish or yellow ones. Some birds become entirely red except for the old greenish primaries, their coverts and the secondaries and there are all sorts of intermediates ranging down to those with a mere sprinkling of red feathers. The central quills only of the tail may be renewed, sometimes only part of the tertiaries and wing coverts, hut in every case it is easy to see that the process of moult has stopped at points where the checking of its normal advance would produce the varied plumages found.

The prenuptial molt takes place in winter or early spring, beginning in February or earlier, while the birds are in their winter quarters.

The first and subsequent postnuptial molts occur in August and are complete; at this molt young males assume the fully red plumage, which is never again replaced by an olive-green body plumage, as in the scarlet tanager.

The adult nuptial plumage is the result of wear, which is very slight. Adults have only one complete annual molt in August. The molts of the female are similar to those of the male, but young females are often yellower than young males in their first winter, and old females sometimes show a mixture of red feathers in the body plumage, or tinges of red in the wings.

A. F. Skutch tells me that he has seen young males with red in their plumage as early as December in Costa Rica .

Food: Arthur H. Howell (1932) writes: “The food habits of this bird have not been thoroughly studied. Many observers have reported its habit of visiting beehives and destroying the bees. It is known to feed also on beetles, wasps, tomato worms, and spiders, and on certain small wild fruits, such as blackberries and whortleberries. Examination in the Biological Survey of the stomachs of 6 birds taken in Alabama and of 2 taken in Florida showed that the bird has a decided preference for Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.), these insects being present in 7 of the 8 stomachs in proportions varying from 30 to 98 per cent of the total contents. Other insects taken were dragon flies and click beetles.”

A. F. Skutch writes to me: “Sumitier tanagers are expert flycatchers and capture many insects on the wing. As in the United States, so in Central America, they sometimes arouse the ire of apiculturalists by catching bees, and are shot for this offense; but careful study might reveal that it is only the drones that they attack. They are also fond of the soft, white larvae of wasps, and in the Tropics find an immense variety of these insects, with nests of the most diverse forms. The outer walls and rafters of my house are a veritable museum of wasps’ nests, and the wintering summer tanagers often come to feast upon the young brood. But they are excessively shy while close to the house, and it is difficult to watch them at this activity. Sometimes, while occupied indoors, I have heard a scratching on the outer walls, and gone to the window only to see a summer tanager fly away from a wasps’ nest. I actually watched the tanagers plunder nests of three different kinds, on the house or in the surrounding trees; but more often I have found evidence of their visits in the form of nests torn open.* * *

“In addition to insect food of varied kinds, the summer tanagers eat a certain amount of fruit. They come to my feeding table to share the bananas and plantains with eight non-migratory species of the family.~~ Paul H. Oehser has sent me the following extract from a paper by Phil Rau (1941), of Kirkwood, Mo .

Some years ago I recorded that birds sometimes pierce the paper nests of Polistes pallipes and feed on the larvae; on one particular occasion fifty per cent of the small newly-founded nests of this species were destroyed by an unknown species of bird (Can. Ent., 62: 144, 1930). More direct evidence, however, was obtained by Dr. E. S. Anderson who informed me that for two weeks during 1939, he observed a male Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra rubra) remove the larvae of Polistes pllipes and P. variatus from time to time from nests under the eaves of his barn at Gray’s Summit, Missouri. These the bird carried to its young in a nest in a nearby tree.

One sometimes finds Polistes’ nests with whole series of cells destroyed, and at first we thought that this was done by the wasps themselves, who removed the cells to obtain building material for new nests, or, if it was a ‘live’ nest, for cells on other parts of the same nest. In this I find I was mistaken; the damaged condition, when it appears, is quite certainly done by birds when removing the larvae from the nests. Of the twelve species of Polistes wasps studied by me in Missouri, Panama, and Mexico, I have never found any evidence of wasps obtaining building material from old nests, or from portions of ‘live’ nests.

J. I. Hamaher (1936) thus describes the tanager’s method of attack on a wasps’ nest:

The nest of this common black and white paper nest wasp was in a pine tree near the kitchen window from which I watched the performance for about half an hour. When I first noted some unusual activity the bird was pecking at something which he held. Then perching on a twig about three feet from the wasp nest, he sat for a moment facing the nest. I noted then that about a dozen wasps were flying about the nest in an excited manner. The bird then made a dive toward the swarm, seized a wasp and flew off to a resting place nearby. I was at first in doubt whether he was eating the wasps or merely killing them. I afterward found several dead wasps beneath the tree on the ground. After several times repeating the attack the wasps all suddenly disappeared whereupon the Tanager alighted on the nest and rapidly tore the upper protecting layers away and attacked the comb.

Several observers have referred to the summer tanager’s habit of catching bees, but Floyd Bralliar (1922) tells the best story. A friend of his, a beekeeper, complained that his bees were not doing well, though there were plenty of flowers in the vicinity and no disease was apparent in the hives. They sat down to watch, and saw one tanager catch 15 or 20 bees within a few minutes. Then another tanager came and satisfied its appetite.

“We did not know,” he says, “how many birds were feeding there, but it was evident that there were more than two, for no two birds could possible eat so many bees as we saw caught that day. After watching them for a week, my friend, himself something of a naturalist and a great lover of birds, decided be would have to do a distasteful thing in self protection, so he took his gun and began shooting tanagers. The first day, he killed eight of these birds feeding on his bees. Within a few days the bees began to grow strong, showing that this had been their only trouble; and as he had killed all the summer tanagers near by, he had no more trouble.”

He says further: “The summer tanager feeds largely on beetles, caught on the wing or in trees. * * * It eats beetles so large that it seems impossible for it to swallow them. After these insects are digested the indigestible feet, legs, and shells are rolled into a ball by the bird’s stomach and disgorged.”

Behavior: The summer tanager does not differ materially in its mannerisms from the other tanagers. It is very deliberate in its movements and rather solitary in its habits, spending much of its time m the concealing foliage of the woodland trees, where it is surprisingly inconspicuous in spite of the brilliant plumage of the male. Were it not for its loud voice, the bird might easily be overlooked.

Voice: Aretas A. Saunders writes to me: “In the spring of 1908, in Alabama, I became very familiar with the song of the summer tanager. According to my note-books, I heard the song practically daily from the bird’s arrival in April to the end of my stay in early June. My recollections of the song are that it is not harsh, as is the scarlet tanager’s, but musical, with more liquid consonent sounds between the notes.”

Ridgway (1889) says that its notes are much louder than those of the scarlet tanager: “The ordinary one sounds like pa-chip-it-tut-tuttut, or, as Wilson expresses it, chick y-chuclcy-chuck. The song resembles in its general character, that of the Scarlet Tanager, but is far louder, better sustained, and more musical. It equals in strength that of Robin, but is uttered more hurriedly, is more ‘wiry’ and much more continued.”

Mrs. Nice (1931) says: “The song is rich, musical and varied, from 3 to 6 seconds in length, from 4 to 6 given a minute. One typical song went as follows: hee para vee-er chewit terwee hee para vee-er.

A. F. Skutch tells me that the summer tanager “is by no means a silent bird during its sojourn between the Tropics. It often utters its somewhat rattling call-note, chick y-tucky -tuck. Often I have heard the familiar voice floating down from the tops of the forest trees, where intervening masses of foliage lid from my view the brilliant red form. But the summer tanager sings far less in its winter home than many another bird. Early one October, in southern Costa Rica, I found a newly arrived male who sang in a loud voice for several minutes.” On April 24 and 25, 1932, he heard one sing a sweet song; this was the only one he ever heard sing in the Tropics in the spring.

Enemies: Friedmann (1929) lists the summer tanager as “an uncommon host” of the cowbirds; he found five records of such parasitism, involving two races of Molothrus ater and both races of Piramga rubra.

Harold S. Peters (1936) records one louse and one mite as external parasites on this tanager.

Fall: Francis M. Weston writes to me of the migration near Pensacola, Fla.: “Migration commences early and is, I believe, a reversal of the spring route. As early as the last week of August, tanagers appear commonly in the coastwise woods, several miles south of the nearest known nesting areas, and from then until midOctober a few birds can always be found. Stormy spells in September halt flights of southbound migrants of many species that, in good weather, presumably pass overhead undetected, and summer tanagers are always present in these gatherings. Sometimes, particularly when a succession of bad days, such as was experienced here from September 18 to 20, 1937, dams up several days flights, tanagers are as abundant as in spring. In the fall of 1925, the only year I was able to get satisfactory returns from the Pensacola Lighthouse (a first-class light almost on the Gulf beach) a single tanager was picked up among a host of casualties of the night of October 26: 27.”

The migrating tanagers referred to above would probably cross the Gulf of Mexico to Central America. Others that breed in Florida apparently migrate southward through Cuba to Yucatan, and then on to their winter homes in Central and South America.

Winter: Alexander F. Skutch contributes the following account: “My earliest record of the arrival of the summer tanager in Central America was made in the Coast Rican highlands on September 18, 1935, but this is an exceptionally early date, and the species is rarely met before October, when it begins to become abundant. Rapidly spreading over most of Central America, it is one of the common and widespread winter visitants from Guatemala to Panam, on both sides of the Cordillera. During the winter months it resides at altitudes ranging from sea-level up to 8,500 feet, but is most abundant in the lower and warmer regions. It frequents both the treetops of the heavy forest and the scattered trees of shady pastures, plantations, and orchards. The spreading willows that grow along the watercourses in the Caribbean lowlands of Guatemala and Honduras, seeming so exotic amid the heavy foliage of the majority of the trees, are very attractive to the summer tanagers, which dart actively through their open crowns.

“Throughout the six months of their sojourn in Central America, the summer tanagers are solitary and unsociable. They never form flocks; and when two are close together, attentive watching will usually reveal that they are quarreling, probably over territorial rights; for it seems that these tanagers, like some of the warblers, claim exclusive feeding territories while in their winter homes. Early in the afternoon of October 13, 1944, soon after the arrival of the species in this locality of southern Costa Rica, I found two individuals in a guava tree behind the house. Both wore the yellowish plumage of the female and the young male; on neither could I detect any red. One sang sweetly in a low voice, repeating its lilting melody over and over as it flitted about the second, who moved less frequently and from time to time uttered a low, liquid monosyllable. They continued this for many minutes. Then they flew into the tall hedge at the back of the yard, thence through the yard from tree to tree, then down into the lower pasture, and across it to the bank of the creek. I lost sight of them for a few minutes, but soon the song led me to them once more, in some trees in the midst of the pasture. I watched them for the better part of an hour; and all this tune they continued to behave as already described: one (I believe always the same), singing in a sweet, low voice; the other uttering the liquid note; the two flitting around each other. Rarely one would fly at the other and make it retreat. Finally they flew up into the forest and I lost sight of them. Were these summer tanagers, a young male and a female, contesting the same winter territory? This seems the most probable explanation of the episode I witnessed.”

DISTRIBUTION
Range: Central and east-central United States south through Mexico and Central America to Peril, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Breeding Range: The summer tanager breeds from central Texas (San Angelo), central Oklahoma (Fort Cobb, Ponca City), eastern Kansas (Geary region), southeastern Nebraska (Falls City), northwestern Missouri (Albany), southeastern Iowa ~Keokuk), central Illinois (Camp Point, Philo), southern Indiana (Silverwood, Greensburg), southwestern, central and central-eastern Ohio (Cincinnati, Columbiana Crninty), throughout West Virginia (except in high mountains), northeastern Tennessee (Johnson City), western North Carolina (Morgantown), central Virginia (Lexington), eastern Maryland and southern Delaware; south to southern Texas (Lomitas, Houston), the Gulf coast and southern Florida (Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale). Formerly bred north to central Iowa (Des Moines). northern Illinois (Lacon, Chicago region), southern Wisconsin (Albion, Milwaukee), central Indiana (Kokomo), and southern New Jersey (Cape May).

Winter Range: Winters from Michoacan and Puebla (Metlaltoyuca), Veraeruz (Motzorongo, Jaltipan), Campeche (Pacaytun, Matamoros), Yucatan (Chichtzen Itzu) and Quintana Roo (Palmul and Xcopen); south throughout Central America and in South America to south-central Per6, western Bolivia, western Brazil (Rio Uapos), and southeastern Venezuela (Mount Roraima); casually north to southern Texas (Brownsville) and western Cuba (Santiago de las Vegas) .

Casual records: Casual in California (Los Angeles, Wilmington, San Diego), Baja California (Laguna Salada, Guadalupe Island, La Jolla), Arizona (Tucson), Colorado (Boulder, Denver), Minnesota (Pipestone), Michigan (Pinckney), Ontario (Point Pelee, Rondeau Park, Penetanguishene, Scarboro Heights), and New York (Cincinnatus), along the Atlantic Coast north to Maine (Wiscasset), New Brunswick (Grand Ivianan), and Nova Scotia (Seal Island, Halifax); also casual or accidental in Sonora (Rancho la Arizona), Nayarit (Rio las Canas), Bermuda, Bahama Islands (New Providence, Andros), Jamaica, Swan Island, and Trinidad.

Migration: The data deal with the species as a whole. Early dates of spring arrival are: Sinaloa: Escuinapa, March 25. Sonora: Magdalena, April 19. Bahama Islands: Nassau, April 5. Bermuda, April 9. Florida: Winter Park, March 2; Pensacola, March 8 (median of 39 years, March 31). Alabama: Coosada, March 31. Georgia: Savannah, March 18. South Carolina: Charleston, March 25; Frogmore, April 1. North Carolina: Raleigh, April 2 (average of 29 years, April 19). Virginia: New Market, April 14. West Virginia: Charleston, April 27. District of Columbia, April 18 (average of 23 years, May 1). Maryland: Montgomery County, April 21. Pennsylvania: Sharon, May 6. New Jersey: Leonia, May 5. New York: Brooklyn, April 6. Connecticut: New Haven, April 8; Wallingford, April 16. Rhode Island: Block Island, April 7.

Massachusetts: Boston, April 11. Vermont: Putney, May 28. Maine: Sebasco, April 7. Nova Scotia: Wolfville, April 17. Louisiana: Bains, March 18; Grand Isle, March 31. Mississippi: Biloxi and Bay St. Louis, March 31. Arkansas: Glenwood, March 29. Tennessee: Maryville, April 2; Nashville April 9 (median of 12 years, April 15). Kentucky: Versailles and Bowling Green, April 2; Lexington, April 7. Missouri: Bolivar, March 30; Marionville, April 2. Illinois: Olney, April 18. Indiana: Bloomington, April 1; Richmond, April 14. Ohio: Circleville, April 17. Ontario: Toronto, April 13; Point Pelee, May 7. Iowa: Burlington, April 20. Wisconsin: Milwaukee, April 30. Minnesota: Frontenac, May 14. Texas: Kerrville, March 5; Dallas, April 4. Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, April 1. Kansas: Elmdale, April 23. Nebraska: Red Cloud, April 30. New Mexico: State College, May 2. Arizona: San Xavier Mission, April 14. Colorado: Boulder, May 1. California: Piacacho, April 20.

Late dates of spring departure are: Ecuador: Quito, April 7. Colombia: Quimari, April 14. Panama: Loma del Leon, March 29. Costa Rica: El General valley, April 17 (median of 9 years, April 9). Nicaragua: Rio Escondido, April 13. Guatemala: near QuiriguA, April 25. British Honduras: Mountain Cow, April 18. Veracruz: Volcan San Martin, April 22. Tamaulipas: Galindo, April 20. San Luis Potosi: Tamazunchale, April 14. Cuba: Havana, May 30. Bahama Islands: Andros Island, April 19. Bermuda, April 29. Florida: Tortugas, May 14. Maryland: Laurel, May 29. New York: Speonk, May 25. Mississippi: Cat Island, May 10. Texas: Cove, May 18.

Early dates of fall arrival are: Texas: El Paso, August 27. Mississippi: Deer Island, August 9. LQuisiana: Thibodaux, August 20. Florida: Paradise Key, August 6. Cuba: Havana, September 15. Baja California: Guadalupe Island, October 12. Tamaulipas: Matamoros, August 26. YucatAn: Cayos Arcas, August 29. Honduras: near Tela, October 3. Costa Rica: San Miguel de Desamparados, September 18; El General valley, September 29 (median of 4 years, October 5). Panama: Rio Caimitillo valley, October 21. Colombia-Santa Marta region, October 19. Brazil: Madeira River, November 22. Ecuador: Pastaza Valley, October 17. Peril: Huachipa, October 5.

Late dates of fall departure are: Arizona: San Francisco River, October 10. New Mexico: Mesilla, October 1. Kansas: Lake Quivira, October 4. Oklahoma: Tulsa, October 5. Texas: Anahuac and Cove, October 18. Iowa: Wall Lake, September 26. Michigan: Pinckney, November 6 (only record). Ohio: central Ohio, October 7 .

Indiana: Carlisle, October 15. Illinois: Odin, October 1. Missouri: Bolivar, October 16. Kentucky: Eubank, October 10. Tennessee: Elizabethton, October 20. Arkansas: Delight, October 13. Mississippi: Gulfport, October 25. Louisiana: Monroe, October 29. Novia Scotia: Annapolis Royal, October 20. Maine: Monhegan Island, October 21; Winthrop, September 23. Massachusetts: Middleboro, October 26; Nantucket, October 9. Rhode Island: Kingston, September 29. Connecticut: Hartford, September 28. New York: Ward’s Island, September 19. New Jersey: Long Beach, September 29. Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Octover 23. Maryland: Baltimore County, September 29. District of Columbia, September 17 (average of 7 years, September 14). West Virginia: Bluefield, October 10. Vfrginia: Lynchburg, October 17. North Carolina: Raleigh, October 30 (average of 10 years, September 7). South Carolina: Charleston, October 14. Georgia: Atlanta, October 26. Alabama: Piedmont, October 20. Florida: Miami, November 12; Pensacola, November 8 (median of 21 years, October 20). Sonora: San Pedro River, October 5.

Egg dates: Arizona: 9 records, May 27 to August 5. Florida: 5 records, May 9 to June 2.

Georgia: 11 records, May 10 to June 17; 6 records, May 23 to May 31.

South Carolina: 25 records, May 11 to June 2; 13 records, May 19 to May 26. Texas: 4 records, March 24 to June 5 .

Cooper’s Summer Tanager
PIRANGA RUBRA COOPERI Ridgway

HABITS

This western race of our well-known summer tanager is decidedly larger than its eastern representative, with paler coloration. Its range includes the southwestern corner of the United States, from middle Texas to New Mexico, Arizona, and the lower Colorado Valley in extreme southeastern California, and extends southward through western Mexico to Colima. The report of its accidental occurrence in Colorado has been shown by Gordon Alexander (1936) to be an error.

In Arizona, we found Cooper’s tanager common only in the lower valleys, particularly along the San Pedro River, where my companion Frank C. Willard took a set of four eggs on June 9, 1922. Swarth (1904) reports it to be “of very rare occurrence in the mountains, during migration.” We did not see it in the mountains at all.

In the Valley of the lower Colorado River, Grinnell (1914b) found this tanager “strictly confined to the willow association. Not one bird was seen even so far from this association as the mesquite belt.” And in New Mexico, it is reported by Mrs. Bailey (1928) as frequenting the cottonwoods along the rivers and in canyons. Referring to Brewster County, Tex., Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) record Cooper’s tanager as a common nesting species “where there are cottonwood mesquite, or willow trees. It is apparently not so fond of oaks, although singing males were noted more than once in oak woods in lower parts of the Chisos Mountains.” * * * “On May 13 * * * Sutton observed an adult male that was singing and displaying before a parti-colored young male which also was singing fervently. In display, the adult male spread its wings and tail and stuck its hill straight up.”

Nesting: Van Tyne and Sutton (1937) found two nests of Cooper’s tanager in Brewster County: “On May 11 a nest with four fresh eggs and the female parent were collected at Castalon. The nest was about fifteen feet from the ground close against the trunk of a slender willow that stood not far from the Rio Grande. On May 29 a nest and four eggs were found on the Combs ranch, thirteen miles south of Marathon. This nest was built on a horizontal willow bough, about twenty feet above a stagnant pool along the Maravillas.”

A New Mexico nest, reported by Mrs. Bailey (1928), “was found by Mr. Ligon in the top branches of a walnut tree growing in a canyon bed. Its one egg was eaten and the nest destroyed by a Woodhouse Jay.”

The Arizona nest, referred to above, was taken by Frank C. Willard on June 9, 1922, near Fairbank in the San Pedro Valley. It was placed in the extreme top of a large willow, 35 feet from the ground. The nest was made of grass and green weed stems, with a lining of fine grass.

Eggs: The four eggs in the normal set for Cooper’s tanager are apparently indistinguishable from the eggs of the summer tanager.

The measurements of 38 eggs average 23.3 by 17.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.4 by 18.3, 22.9 by 18.8, 21.8 by 17.4, and 22.4 by 16.3 millimeters.

Food: Evidently, Cooper’s tanager is quite as fond of honey bees as is its eastern relative. In a letter to Herbert Brandt, H. E. Weisner, who operates a large apiary near Tucson, Ariz., complains of the damage done to his bees by this and the western tanager. He writes as follows: “It was several years before I realized the fact that their food in the areas about my apiaries consisted almost entirely of bees, and worker bees at that. Or, I had better say parts of bees, for they skillfully avoided contact with the stinger end of their victims by breaking off that end. They accomplished this by catching the bees across the middle of the body and, upon alighting on a branch or other perch, breaking off the protruding end of the abdomen by giving it a ‘swipe’ on the perch. * * * All summer long, the top of nearly every hive was sprinkied with the abdomens of bees, and since just as many fall upon each equal area of uncovered ground throughout the apiary, it is very evident that the toll was very great.”

DISTRIBUTION
Range: Southwestern United States to central Mexico.

Breeding Range: Cooper’s summer tanager breeds from southeastern California (Colorado River Valley from Needles to Potholes), southern Nevada (Colorado River opposite Fort Mojave), central western, central, and southeastern Arizona (Fort Mohave, Aquarius and Juniper Mountains, the Tonto Basin, Clifton), southwestern, central, and southeastern New Mexico (Cooney, Los Pinos; probably Carlsbad), western Texas (Frijole, Davis Mountains, Brewster County), and northeastern Coahuila (Sabinas); south to northeastern Baja California (Cerro Prieto), central-northern and southeastern Sonora (Rancho la Arizona, Magdalena, Opodepe, Guirocoba), northern Durango (Rio Sestin), southeastern Coahuila (Sierra de Guadalupe), and central Nuevo Le6n (Cerro de la Silla, Allende, Montemorelos.

Winter Range: Winters in southern Baja California (San Jose del Cabo), southern Sinaloa (Mazatlan), Michoacan (Los Reyes, Mount Tancitaro), Morelos (Morelos) and central Guerrero (Chilpancingo).

Casual records: Casual in southwestern California (Santa Barbara, Hueneme, Pasadena, San Clemente Island).