The summer tanager is one of Georgia’s most beautiful birds.  Fortunately, it inhabits many backyards during the summer.  However, from September into October these colorful migrants are migrating south to their wintering grounds.  These amazing flights take place mostly at night.

       Summer tanagers are indeed long-distance migrants.  Each fall summer tanagers that breed in Georgia migrate southward on a flight that requires them to fly across the Gulf of Mexico to reach their winter home.  They have a vast winter range that stretches from Mexico all the way south to Bolivia and Brazil.

       To reach these far away destinations, prior to migration they store fuel as fat.  If a bird takes off from the shore of the United States without storing enough fuel, it flies as far as it can before dropping into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Fortunately, a vast number of summer tanagers successfully make the flight with fuel to spare. One study found that summer tanagers arriving in Panama were still toting enough fuel to fly an additional 553 miles.

FEMALE SUMMER TANAGER–PHOTO © Terry W Johnson

       Summer tanagers rest and feed at various places along their migration route.  Some of these birds might use your yard as a stopover site.  If so, listen for them calling from the canopies of the trees growing in your yard.  If you hear a call you are unfamiliar with, use your MERLIN to help you identify it. 

       Also, keep your birdbath full of clean water.  Although I have never attracted a summer tanager to a bird feeder, on many occasion I have seen them bathe and drink at a birdbath.

       Even if you have never seen summer tanagers in your yard, keep your eyes peeled for them.  This may be the year you they just might visit your yard before moving on to their winter home.