Tanager

tan'a-jer, an American family of birds. Of 350 species, nearly all are brightly colored inhabitants of tropical forests. Of the five species found in the United States the scarlet tanager, about seven inches in length, is chief. The plumage of the male is a bright scarlet with black wings and tail. The female is olive green above and greenish yellow beneath. The tanager ranges in deep, green woods from Manitoba to Virginia and eastward. It passes the winter beyond the Gulf of Mexico. The nest is placed near the end of a branch ten to twenty feet from the ground. The male especially is fond of a lofty swinging perch screened by leaves. He seems to realize that his plumage is conspicuous. One no sooner locates his bird and focuses his fieldglass on it, than the tanager apprehends danger and is gone into the depths of the forest. Its food is chiefly fruit and insects. It is the most brilliant bird in our forests. The summer tanager with rose red plumage ranges from Florida to New Jersey. The Louisiana tanager is a Western bird.