Summer Tanager Piranga rubra Linnaeus       Field Guide IDs: NG-392; G-306; PE-260; PW-pl 53; AE -pl 417; AW-pl 449; AM(III)-194 Nest Location Nest Type Eggs & Mating System Dev. & Parental Care Primary & 2ndary Diet.. Foraging Strategy ? I: 12 DAYS ALTRICIAL CONIFER 10 feet - 35 feet ? 4 3-5 MONOG? F: (?) DAYS MF FRUIT HAWKS HOVER & .....GLEAN BREEDING: Deciduous forest, open and riparian woodland, pine-oak association, parks. ? broods. DISPLAYS: ? NEST: On horizontal branch; loosely built of grass, forbs, Spanish moss, lined with fine grass. EGGS: Pale blue, pale green, marked with browns, occ wreathed or capped. 0.9" (23 mm). DIET: Includes esp bees and wasps, few spiders. CONSERVATION: Winters from c Mexico s to w Ecuador se to Amazonian Brazil, but most abundant in lowlands in wide variety of forest, woodland, and scrub. Range reportedly contracting in e U.S. Uncommon cowbird host. NOTES: Frequently raids beehives and paper wasp nests to obtain larvae and adults. Where range overlaps with Scarlet Tanager, the two species respond aggressively to each other's songs and countersing; coexist by partial habitat shift maintained by interspecific aggression. Solitary in winter, apparently holding exclusive feeding territories. STANFORD. NOTES: ESSAYS: Interspecific Territoriality; Vocal Functions; Territoriality. REFERENCES: Shy, 1984b.