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Breeding Birds of the Bull Run Mountain

Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)

One of the most beautiful birds breeding in the Bull Run Mountains is the male scarlet tanager. It makes the red of the male cardinal look pale by comparison. While neo-tropical migrants have been declining over the years, the scarlet tanager is still a fairly common summer resident here in the mountains. They can be found along all of BRMC's hiking trails from near the Mountain House all the way up to High Point.

The bright scarlet red of the male contrasts beautifully with the jet black wings and tail. The female is dull olive green with dark wings and tail. In late summer/fall, males molt into their drab winter plumage so that they resemble females and immature birds.

Males arrive here in the mountains around the 25th of April and begin staking out their territories just before the females arrive. They prefer mature deciduous and mixed deciduous/ coniferous woodlands which makes the Bull Run Mountains the perfect habitat for them. The song has been described as sounding somewhat like a robin with a sore throat. It has a slight "raspy" quality to it.

When the females arrive nest building can begin. The shallow, saucer-shaped nest is made of twigs, small roots, and grasses and usually lined with pine needles. It is built entirely by the female and placed on a horizontal limb of an oak or hickory, surrounded by a leaf cluster and sometimes up to seventy-five feet above the ground. The female can build the nest in one week or less. Three to five (though usually four) greenish-blue eggs, finely speckled with reddish-brown, are laid. After being incubated by the female alone, the eggs hatch in about thirteen to fourteen days. Both parents feed the young birds at that time and the young fledge in nine to eleven days. Only one brood is produced in a season.

While some fruit may be eaten such as blackberries, mulberries and June-berries, most of their diet consists of insects, many of which are considered pests. Even gypsy moth caterpillars are consumed when present.

In the fall, our tanagers head south and most are gone by early October. They spend the winter in montane evergreen forests from Panama southward to northern and western South America.