Read the full article, with photos, here.
Status and Occurrence of Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) in British Columbia. (2015)
By Rick Toochin and Don Cecile.
Introduction and Distribution
The Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) is beautiful passerine found throughout the southern United States (Dunn and Alderfer 2011). This species breeds from southeastern California, southern Nevada, very rarely in Idaho, southwest Utah, central Arizona, central New Mexico, into southern Texas along the Gulf Coast, and southern Florida: also in central Texas, west central Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, southeastern Nebraska, very rarely in South Dakota, southern Iowa, central Illinois (very rare in northern Illinois), southern Wisconsin, central Indiana, Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, eastern Maryland, and New Jersey. In Mexico it is found breeding in northeastern Baja California, northern Sinaloa, northern Durango, southeastern Coahuila, and central Nuevo Leon (Beadle and Rising 2006). The Summer Tanager winters from southern Baja California, southern Sinaloa, and southern Tamaulipas south through Central America and South America (including Trinidad) to west of the Andes to southern Ecuador, and east of the Andes to northern Bolivia and Amazonian Brazil (Beadle and Rising 2006). This species is rare, but regular in southern California in the fall and winter, southern Arizona, Louisiana, southern Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba (Beadle and Rising 2006). The Summer Tanager is a vagrant to Hispaniola and the Lesser Antilles (Beadle and Rising 2006). This species is rare in the fall and a very rare spring vagrant in southern Quebec and Atlantic Canada (Beadle and Rising 2006). The Summer Tanager is casual in winter north to Michigan, southern Canada and Newfoundland, and North Dakota (Beadle and Rising 2006). This species is accidental in Britain with a record of a first-winter male that was present on
Bardsey Island, Wales, from September 11–25, 1957 (Lewington et al. 1992).
Along the west coast, the Summer Tanager is a casual to rare species in Oregon with over eighteen state records accepted by the Oregon Bird Records Committee (OFO 2012). This species is accidental in Washington State with seven accepted records by the Washington Bird Records Committee (Wahl et al. 2005, WBRC 2014). In British Columbia, the Summer Tanager is an accidental species with only a few provincial records (Toochin et al. 2014, see Table 1).
There are 2 distinct subspecies of Summer Tanager found throughout their breeding range in North America (Dunn and Alderfer 2011, Robinson 2012). The western subspecies of Summer Tanager is (P. r. cooperi) which is found in riparian woodlands, especially those dominated by cottonwoods and willows from west Texas and the rest of Western North America (Dunn and Alderfer 2011, Robinson 2012). The eastern subspecies of Summer Tanager is also the nominate subspecies (P. r. rubra) which is found in deciduous or pine-oak woodlands, especially woodlands with sparse understorey from eastern Texas and the rest of Eastern North America (Dunn and Alderfer 2011, Robinson 2012)
Read the full article, with photos, here.
