A Female Scarlet Tanager

June 8, 2026

This, a female Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea).

I’m glad to have these beautiful birds here for our warm season. Though they tend to be in the tippity-tops of trees here in the woods, I get to hear them often, with both the female’s and male’s song that sounds much like an American Robin (Turdus migratorius) with a sore throat.

And when things are really going my way, I’ll even get to see either a female with her muted shades of yellow and gray, or a male dressed in feathers of brilliant scarlet and black.

And if I’m really really lucky, my camera will manage to get a picture or two.

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Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.