The western tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) is a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), it and other members of its genus are classified in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae). The species' plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family.

Taxonomy

The western tanager was illustrated and formally described by American ornithologist Alexander Wilson in 1811 under the binomial name Tanagra ludoviciana from a specimen collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). The type locality is Kamiah, Idaho. The specific epithet is from the Late Latin ludovicianus for "Louis". The name is from Louisiana, the 18th-century French administrative district of New France, rather than the modern state. The western tanager is now placed in the genus Piranga that was introduced by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are recognized.

  • Weight: 0.8–1.3 oz (24–36 g)

Adults have pale, stout pointed bills, yellow underparts, and light wing bars. Adult males have a bright red face and a yellow nape, shoulder, and rump, with black upper back, wings, and tail; in non-breeding plumage, the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge. Females have a yellow head and are olive on the back, with dark wings and tail.

The song of disconnected short phrases suggests an American robin's, but is hoarser and rather monotonous. The call is described as pit-er-ick.

Their breeding habitat is coniferous or mixed woods across western North America from the Mexico-U.S. border as far north as southern Alaska; thus, they are the northernmost-breeding tanager. They build a flimsy cup nest on a horizontal tree branch, usually in a conifer. They lay four bluish-green eggs with brown spots.

These birds migrate, wintering from central Mexico to Costa Rica. Some also winter in Southern California.

Distribution and habitat

The breeding range of the western tanager includes forests along the western coast of North America from southeastern Alaska south to northern Baja California, Mexico. Western tanagers extend east to western Texas and north through central New Mexico, central Colorado, extreme northwest Nebraska, and areas of western South Dakota to southern Northwest Territories, Canada. Vagrants are rare to casual in the eastern United States. In New Mexico, western tanagers were observed in nearly pure stands of saltcedar 10 to 23 ft (3–7 m) tall. Western tanagers were also observed in saltcedar communities during fall migration in along the Rio Grande.

Nesting

Western tanagers nest in second-growth and mature conifer and mixed forests. They only breed in stands of pole- to large-sized trees and stands of pole- to medium-sized trees with >70% canopy cover. In western Oregon, they were not observed using the grass and forb successional stages, but were observed foraging in areas not used for nesting, such as shrub/sapling and young second-growth (16–40 years old) stands typically made up of Douglas fir.

Although western tanagers forage in many habitats, they are typically observed foraging in forest canopies. For instance, in an area of California primarily dominated by giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), western tanagers spent 60% to 75% of their foraging time above 35&nbsp;ft (10 m) and less than 2% of foraging time below 12&nbsp;ft (4 m). In Alberta, western tanager was detected significantly (p<0.001) more often in old (120+ years old) quaking aspen mixed-wood stands than in mature (50–65 years old) or young (20–30 years old) mixed-wood stands. and a dense deciduous understory The western tanager was also considered a conifer-associated species in quaking aspen-dominated and mixed quaking aspen-conifer communities in British Columbia.

Western tanagers primarily glean from foliage. In the mixed conifer-oak woodland of California, 45% of their foraging observations were foliage gleaning. Western tanagers gleaned from twigs in 10% of observations and from branches in 5% of observations. Hawking constituted the remainder of western tanager foraging observations.

  • Western tanager Species Account – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  • from the United States at

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Further reading

Book

  • Hudon, J. 1999. Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana). In The Birds of North America, No. 432 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Theses

  • Curson DR. Ph.D. (2003). Host community dynamics and reproductive biology of a generalist avian brood parasite, the brown-headed cowbird. The University of Wisconsin – Madison, United States – Wisconsin.
  • Goguen CB. Ph.D. (1999). Brown-headed cowbird movements, habitat use, and impacts on hosts in a grazed and ungrazed landscape. The University of Wisconsin – Madison, United States – Wisconsin.
  • Hejl SJ. Ph.D. (1987). BIRD ASSEMBLAGES IN TRUE FIR FORESTS OF THE WESTERN SIERRA NEVADA (CALIFORNIA). Northern Arizona University, United States – Arizona.
  • Hudon J. Ph.D. (1989). Keto-carotenoid usage and evolutionary dynamics in birds. The University of Connecticut, United States – Connecticut.

Articles

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