About the Scarlet Tanager Drawing
I have seen Scarlet Tanagers many times over the years, but their beauty never becomes ordinary. A breeding male moving through the green canopy can appear almost impossibly bright, with a scarlet body set against jet-black wings and tail. Females are less conspicuous but equally beautiful, with warm golden-yellow and olive plumage that blends much more readily into the leaves.
Scarlet Tanagers (Piranga olivacea) breed primarily in mature deciduous and mixed forests across eastern North America. They spend much of their time high in the canopy, where they search among leaves and branches for caterpillars, beetles, moths, and other insects. They also eat berries and other fruit, particularly during migration and later in the season.
Despite their familiar common name, Scarlet Tanagers are now classified in the cardinal family rather than with the true tanagers of tropical America. They are long-distance migrants, leaving North American breeding forests each autumn to spend the winter in tropical forests of northern and western South America. Adult males exchange their brilliant breeding plumage for a yellow-green appearance before migration, while retaining their dark wings.
Scarlet Tanagers are still widespread and globally classified as a species of Least Concern, but they depend heavily on healthy forests throughout their annual cycle. Forest fragmentation can expose their nests to increased predation and brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds, while habitat loss on both their breeding and wintering grounds remains a concern.
In Scarlet and Gold, I portrayed a male and female among arching branches, green leaves, and clusters of red berries. The contrast between the male’s intense scarlet-and-black plumage and the female’s subtler gold and olive coloration reveals two very different expressions of beauty within the same species. The title reflects that striking contrast.
Scarlet and Gold is a colored pencil wildlife drawing of Scarlet Tanagers (Piranga olivacea) by Michael E. Dorcas for Tantilla Art.