How to Identify a Red Bird With Black Wings

Tanagers are characterized by their bright colors in the breeding season.

Some species of birds change the color of their plumage between the breeding and nonbreeding seasons, and so a red-and-black bird that you spot in the spring may not look the same in the fall. Females can also display colors and markings different from males, so a particular species can be difficult to identify from one sighting. Birds displaying red plumage and black wings are more likely to be seen in the spring breeding season at the height of their color.

Things You'll Need

• Digital camera
• Computer with Internet access
• Bird identification book

Instructions

1. Use a camera and take photographs of the red-and-black bird so you can accurately cross-reference your pictures at home with a bird-watching website for reliable species identification.

2. Carry a bird-identification book when you are bird-watching so that you can immediately check the markings of any bird that you see in the field and identify species on the spot.

3. Confirm with your reference material that the bird is completely scarlet on its body, including the head, and that the wings are black. Only a member of the tanager family of birds exhibits this exact color combination, so a sighting in North America matching this description can almost certainly be identified as a scarlet tanager.

4. Check to see if the black wing coloration extends over the bird's back and around the side of the head. If it does, then it is a masked crimson tanager, a native South American bird. If the bird has a black head instead of a mask, it is a crimson-backed tanager.

Tips & Warnings

• The scarlet tanager is seen with its red-and-black plumage only in northern and eastern sections of the United States. The bird's breeding area spans from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan in the north, across to the East Coast, and as far south as parts of Georgia. The tanager sheds its breeding colors before migrating south across Central America and settling in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru during the winter months.

References

• All About Birds: Scarlet Tanager
• National Geographic: Scarlet Tanager
• Neotropical Birds: Crimson Backed Tanager
• Save America's Forests: Masked Scarlet Tanager

Resources

• Pbase: Scarlet Tanager
• Oiseaux-birds: Scarlet Tanager