scarlet tanager north carolina | Best Life Birding- Birdwatching Tours

By Sally Siko

With the long hot summer days upon us, it’s admittedly a little hard to psych myself up to go birding. Even in the morning the humidity just sucks the energy right outta me. Yeah I’ll admit it, imo wintertime can’t return fast enough lol!
But despite the temperatures, I’m so glad I took a quick trip to go look for some birds at Mason Farm Preserve last weekend in Chapel Hill NC because I was rewarded with a glimpse of this gorgeous Scarlet Tanager.
Though I wasn’t able to get any decent close up photos of him, it was really neat to see one out in the open.

Scarlet Tanagers are spring & summertime residents of North Carolina and are best found from the Appalachian mountains to the Triangle region. Though they do show up in our eastern counties, their numbers appear to be higher in the western portions of the state.
One of three species of red birds found in NC, with that bright plumage they look similar to Summer Tanagers or even Northern Cardinals but are easy enough to ID (even at a distance) by their onyx black wings and tails.

These beauties usually like to hang out in the upper canopies of the trees (especially oaks) of deciduous forests which can make them tricky to spot while hiking in the woods. The best way to find one is to listen for it’s distinctive calls of slurred whistles of pit-ti-tuck separated by short pauses that can sound quite similar to (but shorter than) an American Robin with a sore throat lol!

They’ll stick around North Carolina through mid October so if you’re willing to brave the heat this summer, you still have plenty of time to go see one!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my beloved full frame 50MP beast, the mighty @canonusa #5Ds

Here’s a bird that I’ve struggled to get a good photograph of, the Scarlet Tanager.

The first few photos show a handsome male that I found along the Blue Ridge Parkway back in June.
While he did sit patiently as I took photos, unfortunately the closest view I had was from about 100ft away. Thank goodness for a zoom lens lol!

Finally though, this past weekend I got a great close up look at a female at the Old Bynum Bridge in Pittsboro NC.

Although she’s not as brightly hued as her crimson & onyx mate, female Scarlet Tanagers are quite lovely dressed in their autumn gold & charcoal plumage.

Scarlet Tanagers are a summertime resident of central and western NC. They are found in deciduous forests containing mature hardwoods.
Unlike their relative the Summer Tanager, Scarlets are secretive creatures preferring to nest and hunt for a meal in areas away from people.
If you’d like to try and attract these beauties to come out of the woods to visit your yard try planting raspberry, huckleberry, serviceberry, mulberry, strawberry, and chokeberry on your property.
These gorgeous birds will stick around for just a couple more weeks before migrating south for the winter.
Do keep in mind that Scarlets are also fond of eating jelly, cherries, oranges, suet and mealworms so offering these items in your feeders may be enough to entice them to visit you when they return to the area next April.
Aren’t they lovely?

Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on
the mighty @canonusa
#5ds