Western tanager
Piranga ludoviciana
Bird
A bird that looks like it belongs in a rainforest and instead spends its summers in open western conifer and conifer-oak woodland. The breeding male is yellow and black with a head washed in orange-red, a colour he gets from insect prey rather than making it himself. Tanagers take insects from the canopy through the breeding season and switch heavily to fruit later in the year.
Plants in the catalog
Foliage plants · 3
Takes insects from the canopy through the breeding season in open western conifer woodland, of which Douglas fir is a principal component.
Oak woodland and mixed conifer-oak is core breeding habitat, where it gleans insects from the canopy before switching to fruit later in the season.
Breeds in open ponderosa woodland and takes insects from the canopy through the summer. It is a broad woodland forager rather than a pine specialist, so the tie is to the open stand structure as much as the tree.
Range
Breeds in open conifer and mixed conifer-oak woodland across western North America, from southern Alaska and the Northwest Territories south through the Rockies and Pacific ranges to Baja California and western Texas. It is a genuine long-distance migrant, wintering from Mexico to Costa Rica.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
Use this citation for the Plotwright wildlife record. Use the source cards below to explore the references that informed its taxonomy, range, conservation, host plants, foraging, and habitat.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Western tanager (Piranga ludoviciana). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/wildlife/western-tanager
Sources used for this record
This record is compiled from the sources below.
Cornell Lab All About Birds: Western Tanager
Species account for the open-conifer and oak-woodland habitat, the insect-then-fruit diet, the migration, and the dietary origin of the red head pigment.
GBIF: Piranga ludoviciana
GBIF backbone key 2488484 is an exact accepted match for Piranga ludoviciana in family Cardinalidae.
iNaturalist: Piranga ludoviciana
iNaturalist taxon 9919 is the active species record with community observation range data.
Wikipedia: Western tanager
Corroborating reference for the plumage difference between the sexes and for the tanager’s placement in the cardinal family rather than the true tanagers.