From Opus

Piranga olivacea

Photo by s_linste
Photo taken: Montreal, Quebec.

Photo by Muskrat
Photo taken: Northeast Pennsylvania.

[edit] Identification

7 1/2" (19 cm).
Adult male in breeding plumage is brilliant scarlet except on wings and tail which are black. Non-breeding adult male is olive green with yellower underside retaining the black wings and tail.
Adult female is a duller version of the non-breeding male, bill darker and wings less contrasty to back.

During late summer or early autumn, some of the males may show a patchwork plumage of red and green as they undergo a molt to olive green, except for their wings and tails, which remain black throughout the winter.

Immature males (and possibly sometimes adult males in non-breeding plumage) can have a wash of orange more or less unevenly distributed mostly on breast and rump¹.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds from extreme southeastern Canada to east-central United States. Winters in South America east of the Andes from Colombia to Bolivia and western Brazil, and rarely in Panama.

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species².

[edit] Habitat

Chiefly mature woodlands, especially oak and pine.

[edit] Behaviour

This species spends most of its time high in the canopy eating mostly insects. Three or four brown-spotted greenish eggs are laid in a shallow nest of twigs and stems lined with grass and placed on a horizontal branch.

[edit] Vocalisation

Song: Hurried, burry, repetitive warble, somewhat like that of a robin.
Call: emphatic, nasal chip-bang or chip-burr

[edit] References

1. Thread in Birdforum Id Forum discussing a bird with orange wash; read October 2008.
2. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019

[edit] External Links