---
title: "Scarlet Tanager"
description: "Piranga olivacea — Vogels. The scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) is a medium-sized American songbird in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae)."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/scarlet-tanager
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Scarlet Tanager

> Piranga olivacea — Vogels. The scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) is a medium-sized American songbird in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae).

- Scientific name: *Piranga olivacea*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `forest` (Bos)
- iNaturalist observations: 30103
- Wikidata: [Q1193366](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1193366)
- iNaturalist taxon: [9921](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/9921)

## Names

- en: Scarlet Tanager
- de: Scharlachtangare
- es: Piranga escarlata
- fr: Piranga écarlate
- pt: Sanhaçu escarlate
- pl: Piranga szkarłatna

## Countries with the most observations

US (20434), CA (4590), CO (731), MX (417), CR (251), PA (220), EC (107), HN (55), NI (48), PE (27), BZ (18), BO (10)

## Summary

The scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) is a medium-sized American songbird in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae). Until 2009, it was placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), but it and other members of its genus have since been classified as belonging to the cardinal family . Breeding males have bright red plumage with black wings and tails, while females are yellow-olive. Outside the breeding season, males develop plumage similar to that of females, although their wings and tails remain darker. 
The species breeds mainly in large deciduous forests in eastern North America. It migrates through Central America to…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_tanager

## Photo

![Scarlet Tanager](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/scarlet-tanager/medium.jpg)

Photo: Jeff Davis · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/379746583

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/scarlet-tanager?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).